Designing Multi-Sensory Displays for Mobile Devices

It is probably fair to say that small mobile computing devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), have been slow to claim the large market share that was predicted in the late 1980s. The reasons behind the slow consumer uptake are not clear. What is clear is that the latest generation of consumers have been more than willing to embrace mobile phones, portable music players, and hand-held gaming devices. It is also becoming clear that these stand-alone applications of mobile technology have been converging. For example, we now might expect our mobile phones to play music and provide games, video, and picture-taking facilities. We might also expect seamless access to wireless Internet and the required functionality for both e-mail and web browsing. In an unexpected way, it seems the convergence of these mobile technologies is finally signaling that the time of the PDA has arrived