In early 2001, it struck me that the best mobile device would be a tablet-phone-headset combo. And these days, it would have two cameras, a music player with all formats, anti-glare screen, kickstand, lots of USB ports, HDMI, Bluetooth and IP printing etc. But my main idea was about usability and form factor. At the time (and now, in most offices), the two most familiar form factors are 8 1/2″ by 11″ and 3″ by 5″. It seems to me that a tablet which measure just under 8 1/2 by 11 and a phone which measures just under 3 by 5 would be intuitive to grab, even when you’re barely looking at it. If the phone docked in the tablet, and the headset docked in either one, that would be even cooler.
Imagine if this tablet was 8 1/2 by 11. You might have room for a real keyboard at one end, and even a 10 key.
If the phone was 3 by 5, it would be intuitive to grab, and harder to drop.
They should sync automatically, with each other, and with your desktop or any Internet connection to your contacts and calendar databases. Apps should sync automatically between them. Storage on one would mirror to the other and back up incrementally. Maybe the tablet would have an extra storage cache for ‘archived’ data. You should be able to set these sync properties to sync selectively if you want, but one setting (probably the default setting), would be AutoSync. It just works. 100% of the time within Bluetooth range. You should be able to send and receive calls, e-mails and texts from either device. And the headset (which could also dock in the tablet) would work flawlessly, both talking and listening. Right now, I’ve experienced great talking headsets (such as the Jawbone), and excellent listening headsets by Plantronics, but I’ve never found one which is really good at both.
A headset doesn’t have to look like this, in fact it should probably be more compact, but you get the idea from the description above.
In any case, I’m a little surprised that the concept of a roomy tablet, a wide phone, and a dockable headset as an automatically synced and flexible combo package hasn’t taken hold among the digital designing crowd. The designers have done such a great job with thickness, I would think people would mind the height and width to increase a little in order to have more features. Maybe the package would be pricy, but if it worked really, really well, I bet people would pay for it.
And I’m really surprised it hasn’t caught on in the last 10 years.