2008: The Year of WiFi in Your Pocket

Microsoft’s Windows Vista may be the best thing to ever happen to hand held computing. Everyone’s talking about the innovation of the iPhone, but really Apple just beat Pocket PC, Treo, BlackBerry, and Samsung to the popular WiFi punch. What I’m referring to is the lack of innovation that Vista provided with the excess bloat. If Vista had been a hit, people would actually care about bulking up their machines and spending money on bigger, faster, monsters to run their graphics heavy systems.

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Instead, consumers should be saying, “Why am I wasting my money to sit here and stare at this slow desktop?” Small, fast devices are going to drive people to search for a product that meets their new tech fix. Yes, the iPhone is going to be a status symbol, but not everyone is going to be happy with with the $399 for AT&T models, or even the $299 for the (crippled iPhone called the) iPod touch.

That $200 perfect price point is going to unleash a huge market this year. Asustek looks to have a $200 “Internet” laptop (of course expect double the price with a Windows Version). The One Laptop Per Child project has been trying to reach the $100 point for years, but decided to go ahead with the $200 price for now ($399 purchases one for yourself, and one for an underprivileged person in a far away land).

But really, the template for hand held devices should unbelievably be the Nintendo DS. It looks to increase functionality with a (rumored) cartridge that will handle memory cards and useful “geolocative” (is that a real word?) applications other than the Opera browser. Of course, homebrew fans are driving many of these online rumors, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t true.