Microsoft: Cell Phone Will Replace PCs

Meanwhile, people who have already worked on it for a while claim:

Mobile is dead!

So which is it?

Am I the only person in the world that has difficulty concentrating for long periods of time on a 2-inch screen? Or a 3x4 inch screen for that matter.

Where is Goldylocks when you need her? No, I don't want something I have to use in conjunction with a magnifying glass, and no, I don't want something that takes up a whole wall in my living room. Whatever happened to "just right"?

I think this is all about consumerism. Microsoft wants to perpetuate the myth that everything will be on a cell phone. Why? Because they need something to add to their bottom line, where Windows is already about a successful as it will ever be. Meanwhile the old-guard electronics firms in Japan, China and so forth know we are all going to be replacing our old TVs sometime in the next few years and they need to sell the concept of "bigger is always better".

Nobody here is paying that much attention to what consumers actually want, what they are paying attention to is what they can brainwash consumers into wanting in the near future.

Companies can raise a lot of cash of course by selling things that people don't actually want. The question is can they use that cash to build "mindshare" to keep those customers loyal to the brand, or will they squander mindshare for short term gain that only boosts stock prices long enough for the executives to bail out?

The N800 is about as small a screen as I'd ever want to use for Internet access. I do check e-mail on my cell phone though using a specific application for just that purpose. In both cases those are temporary situations where I'd rather wait until I get back home, or at least onto a laptop to do any responding, etc.

Companies will only start listening to what consumers actually want after they have been whacked over the head a few times by consumers willing to say "I won't buy that cr*p just because you tell me it's the next big thing!"