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Phone + Tablet combo idea picking up steam

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Dylan F. Tweney at Wired’s Gadget Lab has proclaimed “A Tablet Plus a Feature Phone Would Be Mobile Bliss”. I don’t know about that, but yeah, I agree a phone + tablet combo is a pretty good idea, and I’m not just saying that because it’s my idea (okay, maybe I am).

Here’s how Tweney summarizes his concept:

The result would be a device I could use for phone conversations and basic texting. Mostly, though, it would supply internet connectivity to my other gadgets. I’d use an iPad or my laptop for e-mail, reading articles on the web, composing blog posts, Twitter and, in short, everything else.

Here’s what I threw out there back in January in a post entitled “Does the iPad open the door for an iPhone nano?”

The smartphone + notebook combo works great if you’re a power user. But what if you’re not? What if you want your phone to work primarily as a phone, delivering voice and text all-day, and want a decent-sized screen to view maps, eBooks, and movies? In this case, a better pairing would be phone + tablet, or iPhone nano + iPad.

The details are different and there’s give and take with the features, but the basic premise of the phone + tablet combo remains. Glad to see I’m not the only one warming up to the pairing.

The truest example of this combo is bound to be the BlackBerry + PlayBook. A BlackBerry offers a lot more than just voice and text/email, but for many users, those are its primary functions. The PlayBook is designed as a complementary device, a companion to a BlackBerry. It lacks built-in mobile broadband, tethering to a BlackBerry instead, while offering a larger screen for web and media. BlackBerry + PlayBook looks to be an ideal phone + tablet combo. One might even call it blissful.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. griz8791

    11/09/2010 at 7:59 pm

    Alternatively, maybe we could outlaw these exclusive deals so Verizon customers don’t have to move to AT&T to get the Dell Streak. Or maybe we could figure out a way to keep the U.S. carriers from banding together to make Samsung delete the phone capabilities from the U.S. version of the Galaxy Tab. The European version is a phone and a tablet, combined in the same device.

    That second thing is a transparent attempt to try to make us buy a phone AND a tablet. I can think of no other explanation.

  2. GTaylor

    11/09/2010 at 8:49 pm

    I have a simple Lotus phone, easy calls, texts, picture messages, and email reader. An HP iPaq 211 covers a whole lot of what I need to do when out and about and it bluetooth file shares with the phone. My Motion M1400 with a replacement 250gig drive and no Motion extra utilities does any full computing that I need to do. Feature Phone and simple mobile computer just works. Now if tethering and syncing weren’t such pains.

  3. Anonymous

    11/10/2010 at 8:39 am

    I think tablet use will actually drive the adoption of “Big Smart Phones” . Phones like the sold out HTC Desire HD end up functioning as tweener devices between tablets as people realize the benefits of bigger screened devices with phone functionality and connectivity.

    After using the iPad and other tablets for awhile it was amazing how interested I became in the Dell streak for example. In an increasingly data driven world I don’t find myself actually talking on the phone that much anymore so I could probably survive the occasional embarrassment of putting a larger device up to my head.

    • Apn64

      03/26/2011 at 12:30 am

      Bluetooth means never having to be embarrassed. I wear a bluetooth all day and rarely have my phone on me. I love the idea of a 7 inch tablet and phone combination.

  4. Tbarrera

    07/14/2011 at 8:41 pm

    I want an everything device. Dick Tracy on steroids. PC Tablet Phone all in one. One plan. 
    Why would you want to talk on a big pad they ask? Why would you use a small phone to surf the net! 
    Not for everybody I agree, but its not a big deal to implement. It is all about making more money selling different devices, but it will happen and when it does I will be first in line to get it.

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