I’m a big fan of WAN-connected consumer devices: the ipod touch, amazon kindle, Dash.net GPS, and of course the cellphone which is the original in this catagory. I think out 10 years it will be hard to buy a CE device that doesn’t have a cellular and/or 802.11 connection that comes with it. I think you will see more CE devices with cellphone like distribution and pricing as well: device is free if you sign up for a subscription service. The kindle is a great example of how much better a book reader can be when it is wirelessly connected to a service offering digital books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The service enables you to read books; the connected device is just an enabler.
I’m surprised shutterfly or smugmug hasn’t launched a similar photo service enabled by a digital camera device with an embedded 3g connection. Each time you take a photo it could automatically be uploaded to shutterfly. I’ve seen a version of this with an SD card with embedded 802.11-much better if the device supports it natively.
Camcorders are one area where this connectivity will be particularly useful. An early-adopter version of this is Qik.com which i discovered when Robert Scoble started video blogging from his cellphone using it. Qik is an example of the type of enabling service that couldn’t have existed 10 years ago. Cell phones got imagers a few years ago, then they got 3G, and it took a while but finally Qik came along to allow folks to leverage both of those to instantly stream breaking news. You launch the Qik application on your cellphone and you instantly are live streaming video to the internet. Problem is the cell phone has none of the key features we are used to in a camcorder: image stabilization, high resolution video quality, noise reduction microphones, quality optics for zoom, etc. Author the video of your kid’s birthday party in Qik, and grandma can watch it live, but afterwards you are left only a very low quality video of such an important event.
Instead, qik should partner up with a camcorder manufacturer and launch a qik-enabled camcorder service with 3g and wifi. Click the qik button on the camcorder and whatever you film is immediately streamed to the net. But when you get back and plug in to AC power and are in range of 802.11, then it automatically uploads a higher resolution version to replace the low-res. Sony does the hardware, Qik ends up with a site that offers video streaming, video archive, etc. I’d pay a subscription for that.
What cool WAN-connected CE device services are you seeing?
