Case Study 12 – one named converged, portable technology.

Nokia 7373

Convergence of media occurs when multiple products come together to form one product with the advantages of all of them. Mobile phones are a good example, in that they increasingly incorporate digital cameras, MP3 players, camcorders, voice recorders, and other devices.

The Nokia 7373 is not only a fashionable, portable gadget from which you can make phone calls and send text messages, but has a large, dazzling 262k colour screen and a 2 mega-pixel digital camera with 8x zoom and video capture. Furthermore, you can listen to your favourite music on the integrated stereo MP3 player and FM radio. It’s Bluetooth enabled for hassle-free, wireless connectivity and has 10 MB of built-in internal memory, expandable to 2 GB with the microSD slot.

This NMT therefore has converged with:

The digital camera
The video camcorder
The internet (or home PC)

Radio
Music (CDs, MP3 players)

Benficial for the audiences: For the consumer it means more features in less space, through a portable, convenient medium.
Benficial for the industries: It means remaining competitive in the struggle for market dominance. The announcement of a new cell phone that incorporates iTunes music songs is an example of media convergence in consumer electronics.

HOWEVER there is still a downside to convergeed media; converged devices are frequently less functional and reliable than their component parts (e.g. a video will be of much better quality on a camcorder than on your mobile phone). “Further, as single devices address a wide spectrum of consumer needs, breakdowns and problems become more likely, and more disruptive to the consumer. The greater the degree of convergence in a device, the more vulnerable consumers are to the failure of that device and face more complex user-interfaces.” (from wikipedia)

Other converged media devices concerning phones:

• Phone companies integrating 3G on their phones.
• Television is now being converged with the mobile phone industry.
• Phone calls are also being made with the use of personal computers.