Charles on… anything that comes along

New Microsoft Portable Media Center, Why Not Just Use a Laptop? is a very good piece of analysis which points out the obvious about these would-be video-playing handheld devices: actually, most people don’t have a hole the shape of a video-playing handheld device in their lives.

The example of 3 (the 3G phone company), which thought that offering video calls would win it a million customers in the UK, shows this. It ended 2003 far short of its target. Now that it’s instead focussed on cheap phone calls for the pay-as-you-go market, it’s adding subscribers faster than anyone else.

I commend the whole article, but here’s the killer point:

But seriously, do any of us really need to be watching TV and movies everywhere? Who even cares or wants to? If I’m at home and just want to relax or have background noise, then sure I’ll turn on the TV or watch a movie. If I’m out or traveling I like to read, do work, or maybe even be engaged with other people and looking at the world around me. I don’t care to do more work and carry more devices so I can fit more TV into my life. In fact, people work more and more busy now than ever due to higher worker hours and what not, so I really hope that the good people of the world spend more quality time being engaged with family and friends and not an 80GB handheld TV player that gives no opportunity of interacting with others or doing productive work.

I’d give them a shelf life of 6 months. 18 months tops.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• That wheezing noise? It's Portable Media Centers (or Centres) (24 July 2004; score: 70.61%)
• Media Center PCs: is the demand there? (4 January 2005; score: 67.26%)
• Fiorina's curse lives on after HP kills Apple deal to resell iPod (1 August 2005; score: 57.59%)