Purpose Built Devices Are Coming To The Forefront

At the recent Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm in London this past October, Intel's representative gave a very well put together presentation that left me feeling that we're heading not towards "convergence" but instead "divergence" and that as a result we're going to be seeing more purpose built devices that do one thing great, with some sideline features that compliment.

First up this week was ZipIt2, a handheld portable Instant Messenger transceiver that works with all the leading IM players. Then yesterday Creative Labs had their secret skunk work project unearthed by engadget's sleuths, highlighting the video conferencing device that reportedly uses Creative's hardware and SightSpeed's software..

Today pal Jim Courtney, Electronista and MacNN, along with other sites have picked up on engadets "look what we found" find. Creative's In Person is the second device that fits this model of the single purpose device that does one thing very well.

I see this as a good thing, as the decoupling through devices of Video and IM tells me that presence and face-to-face communications are both growing in importance, and consumer product companies are clearly figuring it out.