Conversation Trumps Convergence

Computerworld - Lately, there's lots of buzz about the world of convergence and how everything will merge into a single mobile device that will bring information-access nirvana to IT managers and their users.
The latest rage is the smart phone that combines PDA functions with wireless telephony and data. Unfortunately, for years to come, this will be a failed experiment. Most of your users will be far better off carrying a well-designed PDA, a cell phone and, if needed, a wireless data device.
Despite this fact, three myths about convergence persist.
Myth 1: Users want to carry a single device. Whenever I hear discussion on why convergence is a good idea, it usually begins with someone saying that users prefer to carry only a single device. Makes sense, right? Wrong!
Jupiter Research recently surveyed consumers. When respondents were asked how many devices they were willing to carry, they revealed that they were just as likely to carry three devices as they were to tote one, and twice as likely to carry two. So users can be comfortable with two or even three devices.
Myth 2: The PC should be the model. It's cited as the best example of why business users want converged devices. After all, the PC is the ultimate convergence device. Useful for creating and viewing content, excelling at a variety of tasks, from entertainment to number-crunching and word processing, the PC is a single platform for what used to be separate and dedicated systems. The problem is that the PC is an anomaly. It's the only successful converged device.
So when users claim that they want convergence, what they really mean is that they expect the complete capabilities of each dedicated device rolled up in a multifaceted one, because, in effect, that's what a PC gives them. But that's a pipe dream today. The best converged devices can't offer the telephony experience of the best dedicated phones and the PDA experience of the best stand-alone units. If you could give users the same large-screen PDA experience necessary for viewing and creating information, combined with a shirt-pocket-size cell phone and the proper battery life, you might have a compelling story. Of course, you would also have to violate several laws of the physical universe to achieve that goal.
Myth 3: Convergence lowers costs. There's some truth to this, in that the cost of supporting one device is less than that of supporting two or three. The problem is that if users can't perform their necessary tasks adequately, there's not only