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Handtops as consumer electronics.
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Due to the enthusiast nature of this forum, and the obviously high level of technical know-how of the individual members, we all sometimes miss the point, just as the industry generally has been missing the point from day one. The success of the Handtop form factor, and its very existence, is dependant not on the size and type of keyboard, or the screen resolution, or the CPU, RAM , HDD, OS, or any other technical detail. Those are simply components. The success of the Handtop form factor is dependant on producing a device or devices that meet the perceived requirements of a whole lot of people at a reasonable cost.
So far, no Handtop computer manufacturer has managed to achieve anything close to this.
The simple reason for this failure is that they are constrained by the limitations of technology, finances, and an understanding of what is really needed to fire the public imagination and come up with a “must have” concept.
Before we have a mass of emotional “it needs a touch type keyboard” type of responses, lets look at this dispassionately. The reason no Handtop has as yet become a consumer item (a fridge or VCR or DVD Player or microwave oven) is that there has never as yet been a computer, far less a Handtop computer, that fits so naturally into our lives that it could be considered to be practically indispensable.
The closest things we have to this type of device that could be compared to Handtop computers are the cell phone and the iPod. Conceptually, they are small, simple to operate (with reference to their core functionality) devices that perform a useful function at a affordable price, and can be kept with us all the time.
So what is it that would be needed to make the Handtop a consumer item? Forget for a moment the hardware and OS, they are simply the means of achieving the goal. What is the conceptual basis of a consumer Handtop?
Obviously, the first factor is size and weight. To be universally successful, the Handtop would need to be small enough an light enough to be carried everywhere, as are cell phones today.
The second major factor must be battery life. The Handtop needs a battery life of at least eight hours on the go.
The third factor must be instant availability. To succeed, the Handtop must be available when needed without a waiting period.
The forth factor would be the interface. The operation must be simple and intuitive and shield the user from the complexities of the computer OS, but at the same time be open ended and infinitely configurable. The input must be simple and fast and easy to use, and the output must be simple and easy to interact with.
The fifth factor must be connectivity. For the Handtop to succeed, it must have universal fast connectivity that does not require user intervention.
The sixth factor needs to be storage. The Handtop must possess sufficient storage in a structured environment.
The seventh factor is performance. For the Handtop to succeed, it must have a reasonable level of performance when used for average tasks.
And the eighth and last major factor, but by no means the least important, is cost. The Handtop must be affordable to the average consumer, as is the cell phone at present.
While the above might at present look like science fiction and in today's technological environment it is as yet not completely achievable, we can probably go a long way towards achieving such a design already, if we are prepared to think outside the box, and leave our current preconceptions behind.
The first preconception that we might have to abandon is the concept of a unitary design. Who says that the Handtop has to be one single unit? The iPod is not, it is a player and separate earphones. Why could the same principle not be applied to the Handtop. Input and output devices separate from the main unit, perhaps even interchangeable with other types depending on situation? Like the bluetooth headset on a cell phone, this concept only seems strange until people start using it.
The second preconception to get rid of is to do with interface. Why view things on a screen limited by the size of the unit. Roll out screens will be here soon, but we already have projectors and monitor glasses. Do we need a keyboard as part of the unit? Could we not use a separate, folding keyboard and never have to take the unit out of a pocket? What about virtual keyboards projected from a watch, or voice input for simpler tasks?
The third concept to abandon is functionality. Why should a Handtop function like a traditional computer? Why not pre-program the most commonly used features to be accessed like on a cell phone, or better still a TV remote? If one wanted the traditional OS interface, it would still be available, but should it be the primary interface, and should it determine functionality, as it does today?
Battery life, availability and performance are related and can not be dealt with separately. Would sacrificing CPU performance not lead to better battery life, which in turn would lead to better availability? What about lots of separate, low powered general purpose micro cores on a CPU that perform individual operations and shut down when not in use?
Storage and communications also go hand in hand. SSD's can provide enough low power consumption storage to make the unit work, but are expensive and prohibit high capacities in a low cost unit. But if one had a small SSD in the unit, remote storage could be used for larger volumes of data, presuming inexpensive, high speed pervasive communications. This could also permit the access to increased computing power where needed by handing off tasks to powerful base stations attached to the Handtop via the communications net.
Price could be dealt with by volume sales, sponsorships from cell phone carriers or providers of communications, and the use of less expensive, standardised components.
The only factor that we do not have an available or potentially available solution for at present is battery life, and that will come.
These are just some ideas on how to approach the problem, and there are probably a great number of better ones out there. But one thing is for sure, we need to approach the problem, as it is real and at present limiting the Handtop to a niche, high price market.
Finally, the above conceptual approach does not do away with the Handtop as it is at present. Just as lightweight laptops have not killed gaming laptops, so this conceptual Handtop would not do away with Handtops as we know them. What it would do is popularize the Handtop concept, and turn the Handtop into a consumer electronic device, ensuring the survival and prospering of the traditional Handtop at the top end of the market for those that need it.
*EDIT - Just a week or so after this blog was written, we have a release from Intel in a similar vein. link
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04/05/07
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GreatDane
Granted what you say is true, though I do not necessarily hold with your conclusions in their entirety. But I can not believe for one second that typing is the last best hope for input, far from it.
I will grant you that typing might well be the best form of input available to us at present, and as such we should concentrate on perfecting it as far as is possible, but I also think that it is getting to a point where we should be looking for alternatives. One alternative that pops to mind might be virtual writing, where we have a pen/stylus that records the movements on a surface or in space and converts the movements into text. A sort of digitizer without the digitizer. And I am sure that, if one were to really put ones mind to it, a number of other alternatives would also become apparent. In the long run, typing and speech might well prove to be the two best forms of input, but should we not also look to alternatives in case we are missing something?
04/05/07
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SomeName
Pen systems are very slow in comparison to keyboards, but if kids were taught a shorthand system from an early age, that speed could be brought up somewhat...but pen usage is still more injurious than keyboard usage, particularly at high speed. But pens are good for certain supplementary input, e.g., ideographic languages, math symbols, drawings, pointers...some of that can also be done with a fingertip on a touch screen, but a pen is better if much needs to be done and with much precision.
Sensors could also be applied to small muscles that are available to volition so as to obviate much movement. Most of the best candidates for this are the same muscles that are used in keyboarding. We could also sense larger movements similar to key-pressing but without a physical key via, e.g., near-real-time analysis of video.
Similarly, subvocal verbalization (sensing of inaudible operation of the vocal apparatus) has some potential, but it's also slow.
There are other means available for text input than some form of keyboarding, but this is the primary method because our devices are adapted to our ordinary capabilities already...not perfectly, but adapted better than most of what can be built short of extraordinary means such as I've mentioned: more direct sensing of tinier muscle movements, and direct neural interfaces. Most of the non-extraordinary other available improvements would appear to be some variant of a keyboard.
We don't really have to look to a lot of alternatives, because people have done this for a long time and came up with the best set of solutions in the variety of keyboards. Short of those extraordinary alternatives, the task is to focus on developing optimal keyboard configurations and not digress into a wishful search for non-existent alternatives.
04/05/07
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ShivaFooL
If we are talking about a consumer electronic mass market device, I am not convinced it needs a touch type keyboard. In my perhaps jaded view it seems there are millions of people who would be happy to never have to type again. Sure there would be many of us geek types who would insist on a keyboard device for our nerdy purposes, and we would find the niche product rejected by millions that suits us fine.
If I'm wrong about that, maybe a keyboard option to consider is that laser projected type. Presumably shrunken by that indefinite point in the future that we're discussing to a suitably unobtrusive size that can be brought out at those times when we must have that touch type keyboard.
BTW I think we are very close to solving all the problems of the UMPC world and laying out an indisputably clear path for the future.
Shall we take on global warming next? ;-)
04/05/07
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GenM
SomeName said: "Accordingly efforts must be concentrated on optimizing this digital text input capability in our shrinking devices."
That would mean the dvorak key layout?
Most people do not/can not touch type. I still use the hunt and peck method after using the keyboard to program computers and write/edit papers for over 40 years.
If you want an input device that is natural for most people, try something like link which allows users to use pen and paper. Like most alternative input devices, the cost has to come down for widespread adoption (the chicken or the egg problem), but people that are not comfortable with the keyboard understand it. It even does graphics, and can be used while standing and walking around.
Remember, the QWERTY layout was designed to slow typists down to linotype machine speeds.
edited: Apr 06 2007
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tnkgrl
*GreatDane* - I already hold in my hands all that you are describing: link
Today I was listening to music while using GPS navigation, surfing the web, calling friends, and taking pictures, all quite nicely, and all on one device (the N95)! I could even have plugged the device into a television, paired it with a folding Bluetooth keyboard, and purchased it subsidized (in Europe)... Even the battery is still half full after a day of use.
But it's not a handtop. Why? Because it doesn't run a desktop-class OS and it doesn't provide a PC-like experience... It's a "Multimedia Computer" (to use Nokia's term), and that's fine by me!
Because when I use my handtop I want a desktop-class OS and a PC-like user experience. And that's why handtops are going to remain a niche, because in 2-5 years we'll all have "Multimedia Computers" in our pockets.
But then us geeks, we'll still have handtops 
edited: Apr 06 2007
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GreatDane
Hi tnkgrl,
Congratulations on your N95, may it serve you well!
You are 99.9% correct when you describe the N95 as being one of the devices I have described, it is so nearly there. But that 0.1% is the make or break factor, and tiny as that difference is, it still defines the line between cell phone based devices and Handtops.
Its a fine line, that line between cell phone devices and Handtops, and one that at times does not seem to be there at all, but there is a real difference between the two classes of devices, and that difference it is not the pedantic insistence on a desktop OS and "the PC experience", although it is almost always sold that way (even by me, I hang my head in shame). The real difference is the inability of cell phone based devices to run standard desktop type programs at all or as well as Handtops do. This is not just a geek thing, it is also the second most significant reason why cell phone based "Multimedia Computers" remain in a niche market (all be it a much bigger niche) as well. Cost is the first reason why these wonderful machines are niche market devices.
I can see one or more of a number of things happening in the not to distant future that will blur this line for the consumer electronic Handtop.
The first and most likely option, and one I really hope does not happen for a variety of reasons, is for a larger variety of desktop type applications to be ported to the "Multimedia Computer" OS. This will place a limit on what one can do with the unit, from both the available programs point of view, and from the capability of the unit to run such programs well.
The second most likely of these options is the hand-off scenario, where the Handtop hands off the running of desktop type programs to larger, more powerful networked machines, and the Handtop acts as a Terminal Server type device, using its communications abilities in place of CPU, OS etc. For this to be successful, we need universal reliable high speed access at negligible or no cost.
After the first two, I am not sure which are more and which are less likely, so here they come in no particular order.
The expansion of the mobile OS to accommodate the running of Desktop type programs in a hybrid mode.
The development of an inexpensive, ultra low power consumption desk top type CPU that permits cell phone type devices to run a desktop OS core (with a different interface), permitting desktop type programs to run in native mode.
The pairing of the desktop type CPU/RAM/HDD etc in a unit that can be kept in ones pocket/bag/briefcase and accessed remotely as required by the cell phone type device, using the cell phone type device as the I/O.
I am sure I have missed a few.
As I said in the blog, there will still be niche market Handtops that are conceptually the same as todays units, probably some of them with touch type keyboards etc, but the above would seem to be one of the ways to go for the consumer electronic Handtop.
edited: Apr 06 2007
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GreatDane
GenM said: " SomeName said: "Accordingly efforts must be concentrated on optimizing this digital text input capability in our shrinking devices."
That would mean the dvorak key layout?
Most people do not/can not touch type. I still use the hunt and peck method after using the keyboard to program computers and write/edit papers for over 40 years.
If you want an input device that is natural for most people, try something like link which allows users to use pen and paper. Like most alternative input devices, the cost has to come down for widespread adoption (the chicken or the egg problem), but people that are not comfortable with the keyboard understand it. It even does graphics, and can be used while standing and walking around.
Remember, the QWERTY layout was designed to slow typists down to linotype machine speeds."
Hi GenM,
That is the type of thinking that could well sell the device I envisage to the man in the street. How about taking it one step further, and like with the currently available laser keyboards, have remote sensors that not only pick up the movements of the pen/stylus on any surface, but also project what has been written back onto that surface as a reference. This type of unit could also project a keyboard for use if required, and could be coupled with touch screen input for hand held use, and voice commands via a headset for remote use. It is definitely one way to go!
BTW, although most of us are reluctant to admit it, there are a vastly greater number of people in the world who can "touch type" on a thumb keyboard than can touch type on a touch type keyboard.
04/06/07
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GenM
GD - pair the NAVIsis device with a tiny projector from TI or Light Blue Optics or Motorola (Symbol) any of several other firms to project the display onto the writing surface and you have what you describe. If you can hold it steady enough. Have to figure out how to keep the hand from blocking the projection, though (rear projection?).
RIM Blackberry has trained an entire generation of business email addicts! Just goes to show that if the motivation is great enough, people will adapt to alternative input mechanisms.
04/06/07
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GreatDane
GenM,
Maybe you and I should be designing the next generation Handtop?
04/06/07
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primaz
"BTW, although most of us are reluctant to admit it, there are a vastly greater number of people in the world who can "touch type" on a thumb keyboard than can touch type on a touch type keyboard."
As great dane said above, I do think that while many "handtop" people are users whom are ok with thumb and pen input, I feel it is clear that the larger majority prefer touch type input. That is the reality if prefered input that would be required at this point in our society for a consumer product to be widely adopted. That does not mean that all devices would be that form factor.
I am a person whom wants a touch type mobile device small enough to fit in my jacket pocket. I also do see smaller niche segments of the market that want a pocket size device and they are ok with a thumb or pen input. This topic was about being a mobile device for the mass market consumers. Like it or not the mass population uses laptops and desktops using a touch type keyboard for input. Other technologies from pen, voice, lazar, etc. are far from being easy for mass population to change their behavior. Technology needs to enhance current prefered behavior and thus a keyboard that is touch type must be built in for any device to be consumer mass market adopted. That still leaves room for other form factors.
When I hear this type of topic often debated people whom are set on one form factor seem to take the attitude that this is a zero sum scenario. It is not, there will always be multiple form factors. What is needed right now is a keyboard type of mobile computer for mobile devices to be more consumer mass market adopted. I know users of Blackberry and they hate it but use it because there is not other option to get e-mail mobile. Those same people prefer using a laptop. A touch type keyboard jacket size device is what is needed to be a mass consumer device but that will not eliminate handtops and smaller non keyboard devices. I think once that type of device is created it will create more demand for the other form factors like handtops. There is no possibility of handtop form factors as this point in our society to become that wide spread since they can not have a touch type keyboard.
04/06/07
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GenM
GreatDane said: "GenM,
Maybe you and I should be designing the next generation Handtop? "
All we need is time, talent, and money
primaz - what we are saying is that it is possible to design a device where each user can chose the I/O of their choice.
Many of us feel that a keyboard large enough to touch type on is not practical in an Ultra Mobile or smaller form factor.
Each to his/her own.
04/08/07
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GreatDane
Hi all,
While there is significant and healthy debate over the individual details of the ideal consumer electronics Handtop, one factor has emerged as a thread that runs through the entire debate: Cost!
So to all the manufacturers out there, if you want to be the first consumer electronic Handtop manufacturer, here is one hint, regardless of specifications, size and other factors, if you don't get the price right, you will not sell the goodies.
04/09/07
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primaz
"what we are saying is that it is possible to design a device where each user can chose the I/O of their choice.
Many of us feel that a keyboard large enough to touch type on is not practical in an Ultra Mobile or smaller form factor.
Each to his/her own"
I personally think that pocket size devices fall into two categories ultra small say front shirt pocket and large pocket size. To me the ultra small users want the device small enough to fit in shirt pockets and thus they are ok with a small screen that will not display like a laptop. That ultra small form factor does not typically input much so the screen and input size is not as critical.
The larger mobile pocket device to me is focused to be long enough for a touch type keyboard with a screen able to display more like 1/2 vga. This form factor can be more of a sole computer as this would be designed around heavy input users. Users whom favor a laptop not a PDA.
You could make the larger size device potentially have the option of a keyboard designed to attach to the device as if it was built in. That way one version relying on pen would be a 1/4 to 3/8" of an inch thinner, as most clamshell devices like the old HP728 or Psion's screen was about that thickness. There has never been any device that had that type of options. I think most people want it all integrated. People whom need to input more want a touch type keyboard so the device either needs to be more like 3.5-4" wide by 7.5" long and under 1" thick or be a creative trifold like the Samsung SPH P9000.
I think handtops can be designed into both form factors. I personally think hantop companies would do better in the larger pocket form factor designed around a tough type keyboard. The reason to me is that as technology increases the small form factor is the most competitive as you would be competing with phone devices, blackberries, palms, pocket pc, etc.
04/10/07
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GreatDane
Hi primaz,
Form factor is not really an issue here. I think we can all agree that in order for the conceptual consumer electronics Handtop to be successful, various different form factors need to be available. These would no doubt include, but not be exclusive to, units with a touch type keyboard, or small sub-notebooks, if you want.
One possible configuration of components that has presented itself based on comments and ideas is as follows:
A cell phone/CPU core unit with sufficient horsepower and a flexible enough OS to run, either remotely or locally, any application.
A simplified OS interface for the small screen on the cell phone unit.
Whole day battery capacity.
Small and light enough to carry.
Voice command structure.
Possibly a virtual touch type keyboard with writing enhancements built in as an alternate input method.
Possible laser projector screen built in as secondary screen option.
A laptop docking shell.
Low base cost with extra charged for the peripherals.
04/10/07
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primaz
Greatdane,
What you describe is sounds like the pocket pc? except the OS running any application, that would be what the Dualcor tried to create. A Dualcor is basically what you described. While the Dualcor prototype has no keyboard the combination OS which gives great battery life did intrigue me as a possible useable device. If they made it thinner and longer to incorporate a touch type keyboard it would be a good candidate for a consumer product.
Like it or not for a mobile device to gain consumer mass adoption a version with a touch type keyboard must be incorporated yet in such a way that it can be carried in a pocket. To be a real consumer product the form factor is the issue. There is a population ok with sacraficing the keyboard for overall size but that is not large enough to gain general consumer attraction. Devices that copy creative form factors like the Samsung SPH P9000 have the potential of being consumer products. A small sub notebook or anything that requires one to transport it in a bag because it can not be carried in a pocket will not create a demand for mass consumer adoption. The device must be carried.
Rather than proposing things like virtual keyboard or lazar projected which is even more far away currently to have ease of use for "consumer" adoption; anyone of the handtop companies could take current technology and make a different form factor version with a touch type keyboard yet still be pocketable and that would be a consumer product. Today voice recognition and pen are nowhere near to the level most people would adopt it yet so the other technolgies you mentioned are even further away. That product would increase users for the smaller handtop segment by enabling new users whom want the other form factor.
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