Is bigger better?

There is a new choice in mobile computing for the museum market. Adocere has developed a mid-size mobile device called the Weblet. It is a delicious cross between a tablet and a PDA. The 8.5″ screen certainly had my designer drooling. My response? A nice new addition to my toolkit.

How will I decide what device to recommend for a project? I’ll determine which device can make the interactive content accessible to the visitor in the most transparent way. Screen size, processing power, battery life, form factor, weight and cost will all be considered. The visitor’s needs and the content parameters will dictate the best device(s).

Advantages of the Weblet that I see already:

  • Bigger screen (compared to PDA) for more flexibility in displaying content
  • Easier to multi-use the exact same content on the Weblet & desktop/laptop
  • Awesome battery life – at least 5 hours already!
  • Case designed as needed, not stuck with consumer buttons for calendar, contacts…
  • Better price point than tablets
  • Lighter than tablet/laptop

But I’m still in love with PDAs when they meet my needs. Personally, I think the form factor of PDAs can’t be beat. They are light enough to be held or worn around the neck without fatigue. The screen size on a PDA is plenty big to share information without distracting from museum objects.

Luckily, I’m good at separating my personal opinion from my professional opinion. Because when it comes right down to it, it doesn’t matter what I like, it matters what YOU like.

3 comments

  1. Since you like their product so much, maybe you can encourage them to replace that pathetic mess they call a website. I pitty the fool who goes there in search of anything more than the most shallow of marketing babble :(

    What OS does this thing run? …or is it 100% proprietry?

  2. Andrew, the group is still very much in a development phase…and the website is little more than a brochure as they test the museum market with this device (and the software they are developing).

    I will pass your suggestion along to them.

    OS is Windows Mobile.

    What I’m most excited about is finding a company I would trust to design and build a mobile device to my own specs.

  3. Thanks Glenda :)
    I can understand them not being overly technical at this early stage, but there isn’t a single technical detail on their site — other than the physical dimensions of the unit and the proprietry content format it uses.

    I’d love to use this in conjunction with a widget library to throw together graphic mockups while meeting with a client, especially when doing freelance work where I often meet clients in cafes. If this little box could handle some kind of stripped down Visio, that is…

    Obviously I’m not in their target demographic ;)

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