What we really want to carry and compute with...

The future of mobile computing is a total hot topic at the moment and this video of a moleskin laptop brings up a recurring aspect of the issue. 

As far as I understand we can make small computers quite well and we are still getting better at it. For several years companies have made small computers of notable speed and with reasonable battery life. However, for the most part, companies are not doing this. I think, as a consumer, I feel as though companies are purposefully neglecting to make what I want. Instead they are making many other things which, seemingly fewer people want. 

The iPad, despite its lack of camera etc., reminds me of a device people want, in the same way many people want a moleskine notebook, and possibly, in the same way we would want a moleskin notebook PC. 

Moleskine recently released a tool to help people make print outs to go into their notebooks. I think this is a nice idea though very wasteful of paper, as you will be discarding offcuts, and it seems relatively inconvenient. I think they would benefit from providing special printer paper with round corner stickers that fit in the notebooks, but they may also do well to look at the opportunities of a digital moleskine style experience; perhaps an iPhone app, or a whole new approach to portable computing. 

What do you think? 

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous