United we stand
There are two electronic consumer needs headed on a crash course at the crossroads--unification and segregation. Unification refers to the idea of an all-in-one gadget, like the Treo that's a phone, a PDA and a camera. Many people, especially gadget freaks such as myself, run out and buy the new electronic Swiss army knife because it holds out the promise of multifunctionality in a small package. Almost every new phone seems to have a camera these days, for instance.
There's even a software equivalent: integrated software applications. Microsoft Office is sold as a package for a good technical reason, the various components share common elements, making the whole installed beast only grossly fat, which is a big change from the alternative configuration that would have to be labeled "morbidly obese."
So what's wrong with it?
The weakest link in a chain breaks the whole chain or something like that. What do you do with your Treo if the camera breaks? There's a hidden proposition in multifunction gadgets--disposability. They are betting that you won't keep one for more than two years anyway.
On the software front it's even worse. Consolidated software packages do weird and unexpected things to users. For instance, MS Office on the Mac checks for concurrent license usage across a LAN and stops the second instance from running. But it will you stop you from using Word if I'm using Excel, which somehow doesn't seem quite right.
The solution? Case by case. As a consumer, you need to think about these weird side effects and also question whether you really need a watch with a built-in universal remote control. Think about what happens if something breaks. As far as software goes, you probably don't have legitimate alternatives, certainly not in the case of Adobe and Microsoft.
Posted on July 12, 2006
