Throughout our technological convergence blog we have argued about whether or not the concept of a ‘Black Box’ which will fulfil all of our technological needs (from surfing the web to watching television) will ever truly exist or if it is simply a fallacy. The goal of my coming posts will be to outline some of the arguments on the fallacy side of the ‘black box’ debate and consider how accurate they are in the current marketplace. Today’s statement up for analysis will be:
“Technological convergence is experimental in nature, leading to the production of technologies with an array of impractical functions that are difficult to use rather than a simple task-specific device (Service History, 2010).”
The thought that technological convergence is only experimental in nature is outdated and not at all accurate in the current marketplace. Sure over the last 10 years there have been products which are largely impractical and difficult to use like Nokia’s 2003 ‘n-gage’ (a phone/hand held gaming device which failed to truly fulfil either of its purposes) (MobileBurn, 2010), but this has changed as technological developments and processing power has allowed devices to successfully deliver on multiple fronts. Furthermore the thought of impractical functions in modern devices is almost unheard of as users are able to fully customise the functions that they can display on their device, this virtually negates any redundant and impractical functions as the user is picking and choosing the functionality of their device.
The greatest example of the increased practicality of modern devices is Apples iPhone. iPhone owners have access to over 200 000 applications for customising their device (iPhone, 2010), allowing them to add applications to suit their individual needs. For example if a user is particularly into social networking then they can add applications for Twitter, Facebook, LinkdIn and Foursquare just to name a few. Perhaps your not into SNS’s but rather something like gaming, then you can download games like Streetfighter 4, FIFA 2010 and Need for Speed to fulfil your gaming needs, furthermore you can download podcasts on gaming culture and up and coming games for that extra fix.
Modern devices like the iPhone prove that the above statement about the ‘black box’ failing to deliver practical and simple functions is a fallacy, which fails to truly understand the modern marketplace and how customisation has influenced convergence by allowing users to add all the applications which cater to their individual needs.
REFERENCES:
Apple, 2010, ‘Applications for the iPhone’, accessed: 15/08/2010,
http://www.apple.com/au/iphone/apps-for-iphone/#heroOverview
MobileBurn, 2010, ‘Its Game Time: Review of Nokia’s N-Gage’, accessed: 15/08/2010,
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=4&Id=485
Serving History, 2010, ‘Media Convergence: Black Box Fallacy’, accessed: 10/09/2010
http://www.servinghistory.com/topics/media_convergence::sub::Black_Box_Fallacy
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