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     devices

This page considers the devices on the periphery of the net.

It covers -

• introduction - there is more to the net than the server and the personal computer
• desktop and laptop computers - how many machines, where are they located, who uses them, what do they contain
• internet kiosks and telemetrics - web access for travellers, wired food/drink dispensers, meters and other telemetrics devices
• personal digital assistants - address book to ebooks
• mobile phones - texting, WAP surfing, music, photos and video
• domestic appliances - wired toasters, washers, fridges, airconditioners and other toys
• specialist devices - webcams, printers, RFID readers, MP3 players
• the simputer and other visions - bridging divides or building hype
• demographics - age, gender and other demographics in use of internet devices

     introduction

The internet is a mechanism for the transmission of data. It is also a repository of data. That data is in a digital format. It can thus be sent from, manipulated and received by a range of multi-use and purpose-specific devices.

The internet is often conceptualised as the interaction of a server and a personal computer. As preceding pages of this guide have commented, the net is however broader than the personal computer, encompassing a range of other devices that have

• a direct connection with the net or are connected through intermediaries
• varying degrees of intelligence and autonomy.

Connectivity is not restricted to machines with hard drives, keyboards and text-editing capability.

Ongoing reductions in hardware costs, expansion of communication infrastructure (especially wireless), adoption of protocols such as IPV6 and progress in systems integration - knitting pieces together is significantly more difficult than developing individual components - are resulting in movement towards what has been tagged as the 'next generation internet', 'x-internet' or 'data cloud'.

     desktop and laptop computers

The internet device with which people are most familiar is the personal computer, whether a desktop machine or a laptop. It is 'personal' because data processing is independent or autonomous, in contrast to a device that relies on a mainframe or minicomputer.

As noted in the Web profile elsewhere on this site, personal computing dates from the 1970s, with takeoff driven by declining hardware prices, availability of software and recognition of business/other benefits in a move away from terminals tethered to a mainframe or minicomputer.

Personal computers access the net through a local area network (LAN) or through an independent connection to an ISP, eg from home on a short-term dial-up or 'always on' basis. The LAN typically encompasses several computers and a printer within the premises of a discrete organisation, allowing exchange of information between those devices and a link to the net for web surfing and email. It may involve ethernet or other cabling, or instead rely on a wireless connection. Many organisations link different premises through a private network that is often based on the internet.

How many personal computers are connected to the net? What are they used for when online and offline? The answer is that no one knows.

Various analysts have inferred the number of machines in use on the basis of commercial/government surveys (often small scale) of corporate and domestic users, reported shipments by manufacturers and component suppliers, and data from retailers. There is general agreement that the life of a personal computer averages five years, with replacement of machines in many large organisations at around 3.5 years.

An ITU estimate (PDF) of December 2002 was that the number of personal computers in Australia was 10 million, with 1.5 million in New Zealand, 178 million in the US and 7.5 million in all of Africa. The February 2003 Computer Industry Almanac estimated that the global number of personal computers in use during 2002 was 660 million, with cumulative sales of around 1,080 million machines.

A competitor put cumulative global sales at around 1,952 million, with some 1,069 million in use (of which 255 million were in use in the US, where a cumulative 661 million machines had been sold). IDC claimed that the total number of shipments in 2003 was around 152 million machines, valued at US$175 billion. Forrester claimed in 2004 that some 575 million machines were in use. Others have claimed that there are some 240 million Windows (IBM clones), 32 million Apple and 3 million Linux machines in use. In January 2005 IDC claimed that PC shipments in 2004 were some 177.5 million units; competitor Gartner claimed some 189 million units. Most machines are assembled in South East Asia.

In practice the figures are arguably of most interest to marketers, corporate financial analysts and those seeking indicators for assessing different divides, rather than ordinary users - a difference of 12 million or so in global estimates has little impact.

Figures for what software is on personal computers (and is active use) are contentious. Inadequacies in software - much of which continues to neglect concerns about usability and human-centred design - and in data capture, retrieval and export mean that few users exploit the full potential of their personal computers. That concern is explored in Paul Strassman's The Squandered Computer: Evaluating the Business Alignment of Information Technologies (New Canaan: Information Economics Press 1999) and Information Productivity: Assessing the Information Management Costs of U.S. Industrial Corporations (New Canaan: Information Economics Press 1999). In practice the dominant uses outside Asia are document processing, email and numerical spreadsheets.

There is similar disagreement about use of different browsers and search engines. The 2003 How Much Information study by Varian & Lyman estimated that the amount of original data stored on around 4 billion floppy disks produced over the course of the past three years (the useful life of a floppy) is around 5% of the total data on those disks, or 0.4 petabytes. The amount of original information stored on personal computer hard drives was estimated as 90,000 terabytes, some 1% of overall storage on those machines.

Some benchmarks for other devices are here, along with a discussion of questions about the derivation of PC sales/use data. Graphs about household and other adoption of the PC in Australia and elsewhere are here (PDF).

     internet kiosks and telemetrics

Domestic and international travellers are also likely to have encountered internet kiosks: access devices (with varying degrees of functionality) that are typically located in airports, train stations, bus and ferry terminals, and shopping centres. Those devices are coin- or card-operated. They allow web-based email and web surfing (often restricted to particular domains). In essence they serve as commercial communal PCs, alternatives to the devices found in cybercafes and telecentres.

They are slowly being joined by a range of vending machines - including food, drink, cigarette, magazine and ticket dispensers - that use the net for reporting to their operators about inventory (eg stocks of a particular item are running low or diagnostics (eg a ticket printer is jammed or a cooling system is malfunctioning).

That reporting is attractive for a range of applications. A claimed rationale for broadband-over-powerline (BPL) for example, is use of the internet for communication by electricity meters and other reporting devices - including fault monitoring - on domestic and corporate premises. Adoption of net-based reporting is expected to reduce administrative costs - fewer people walking the streets noting that the different meters have ticked over - and allow for continuous reporting and analysis in real-time.

Some vendors are promoting mobile-based payment systems (eg pay for a can of softdrink by drawing on an electronic wallet held on the consumer's mobile phone or through a charge that is added to that person's phone bill).

     personal digital assistants

Consumer adoption of personal digital assistants (PDAs) - palm-sized devices with a flash memory, 'personal organiser' software and data input via a small touch screen or keyboard (or through wireless/wired synchronisation with a PC and other devices) - has reflected

• the convenience of a device that can hold details about several thousand contacts (along with a diary and other functionality), that can be readily synchronised with information held on a personal computer and that can be fitted in a pocket
• the emergence of cheap wireless communication mechanisms such as Bluetooth that allow the exchange of information with personal computers (which may draw on data accessed over the web) and with other PDAs
• the speed of access (and low energy requirements) of hand-held devices, in contrast to the slow start-up and short time before recharge associated with laptops, particularly because of the 'bloatware' found on most larger machines
• the capacity of upmarket machines to provide email access through a connection with the net or allow the user to surf the web using the WAP protocol.

Bits do not differentiate between text, audio, video or still images. It is possible for them to store and display maps and digital photographs; some indeed feature a digital camera.

It is also possible to display books. A range of 'ebook' texts formatted for PDAs are available on a commercial or freeware basis, with Manybooks.net for example offering access to some works from the Gutenberg Project.

In practice those ebooks appear to be more written-about than actually read and few people seem to be using PDAs for surfing or emailing on a regular basis. As with mobile phones, use of PDAs for taking photos appears to follow a steep trajectory: a short learning curve, a bout of enthusiasm and then little use of the capability during the remaining life of the device.

How many PDAs are in use? There is disagreement about overall figures and demographics, complicated by uncertainty regarding definitions. It is likely that there are over 300 million PDAs in Asia, perhaps 100 million in Europe and around 20 million in North America. Many of the Asian devices are standalone, without wireless/wire connectivity (ie cannot send/receive calendar, address or other data from a personal computer or other PDA).

     mobile phones

Apart from personal computers, the internet device with which many people are most familiar is the mobile phone, discussed in more detail on the following page.

Despite sometimes delirious forecasts by enthusiasts, there has been little sustained consumer interest outside Japan in use of mobiles for surfing, accessing music other than ringtones (which until the advent of the iPod was the most profitable online music sector), reading books or watching video - erotic or otherwise - that is longer than short clips. The primary use is texting (aka SMS), with both adults and the under-18 years cohorts in many countries making intensive use for sending messages to peers and receiving messages from other mobiles or from personal computers via web interfaces.

Recurrent claims that mobiles will

soon replace PCs as the most popular method of accessing the Net

or watching video should be regarded with scepticism.

Some users are more sensibly using a mobile as a bridge between a laptop computer (larger screen, greater memory, easier data entry and navigation) and the net. The convergence discussed earlier in this guide means that the distinction between mobile phones and laptops is blurring, with some personal computers being shipped with or retrofitted with a mobile phone card that obviates the need for a cable or bluetooth connection to a mobile handset.

     domestic appliances

Elsewhere on this site we have offered a view of the internet fridge and other online domestic appliances.

In principle it is possible to equip any domestic appliance - and entities such as potplants, quilts or carpets with some degree of sentience and a wireless or wired connection to the net. Various laboratories, manufacturers and individual enthusiasts have accordingly devised internet fridges, washing machines, airconditioners, electric blankets, vacuum cleaners, coffeemakers and toasters.

In practice it is unclear whether there is substantial demand for that capability, given fundamental concerns about cost, appropriateness, usability and security.

Some of those devices are standalone, with an expectation that they will allow food to be cooked by remote control or enable supplies to be automatically ordered through e-commerce systems as items are consumed (eg wired fridge will order a new tub of yoghurt or a carton of milk every time one goes past its door enroute to your mouth).

Others are envisaged as communication and entertainment hubs: online fridge advocates envisage the kitchen as the entertainment centre of the household, Westinghouse in late 2003 less convincingly promoted the wired laundry as the centre.

The most ambitious schemes centre on the notion of the RFID 'smart house', replete with sensors in potplants to tell the irrigation system it is time to be watered and systems that ensure heating is turned on or curtains are drawn. If something goes wrong the domestic network will contact the owner by SMS or email, or alert the police, fire service and so forth. All in all it is a geek wet dream.

That characterisation is deliberate, as we have been struck that most academics and students working on smart houses are male, with an apparent overemphasis on technology at the expense of functionality.

     the simputer and other visions

Media attention recurrently focuses on devices such as the Simputer, VillagePDA, 'volkscomputer' or Hundred Dollar Laptop - ultra low-price PDAs and laptops promoted as a (or indeed the) solution for third world digital divides. Such devices embody a particular ideology and, as yet, have not received substantial acceptanced by the rural/urban poor. Some have not progressed beyond prototyping.

We have explored some issues and discussed particular devices in a more detailed note elsewhere on this site.

   next page  (mobiles)