GigaOM Pro

After a decade of Swiss Army knife-like gadgets, connectivity could push us back toward dedicated, single-purpose devices.

It wasn't that long ago when "convergence" was the buzzword du jour. Everywhere I turned, I heard about the features from two or more devices melding into a single unit. I remember when cameras started appearing in mobile handsets; I scoffed at the low-resolution sensors back then. In fact, they epitomized my personal feelings on the convergence matter. "What's the point?" I kept saying to myself. "Why should I purchase a converged device when the added feature can't compete with the same function of a dedicated device?" Fast-forward to present day, and it's easy to find phones with a higher sensor resolution than that camera I had a few years back. And cameras aren't the only example here — the convergence trend of the past several years has finally delivered. But now, I'm sensing a new trend about to emerge that in some ways is a direct reversal of that convergence trend we've witnessed as of late; devices are becoming dedicated, single-purpose and standalone again. What's the main driver for this trend reversal? In a word: connectivity.