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The Carry Principle revisited
Since I’ve introduced the concept of The Carry Principle, I’ve had a variety of feedback. I’d like to take the opportunity to address some of them.
First, the Carry Principle asserts that your personal communications device is the one device you won’t leave home without. As a result, it tends to evolve to include other functions, such as cameras, alarm clocks, music players, and so forth.
A PDA is an information appliance. Not so, at least with current definitions of PDA. An information appliance is a device that focuses on handling a particular type of information and related tasks. PDAs no longer focus on any particular type of information. Mine, for example, does address book, calendar, email, photos, music, books, pdfs, videos. It’s not that the definition of information appliance has changed, but that the term PDA no longer means “personal digital assistant” but “handheld computer”.
The Carry Principle appears to ignore wearable computing. Not so.. The Carry Principle does not preclude wearing other technology, or even the “carried” device. Wearable technology includes those integrated with clothing (Nike/iPod shoes) and those affixed directly to the body (a watch). Some of these will be single-purpose information appliances, but others will be more generic. If somebody makes a wearable personal communications device, its characteristics will be described by the Carry Principle. The chief difference is that the size will be limited by body dimensions rather than pocket/purse dimensions.
Device classification won’t matter when all applications are web-based. It depends on the evolution of the web. If all web sites are fluidly designed and ignore capabilities of the devices upon which they are displayed, then yes. More likely, I think, is that web sites will demand to use more and more of the devices’ features to enhance the sites. In this case, classification remains important.
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