Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Ever since the late eighties, mobile communication devices have endeavored to converge with the digital wrist watch. In 1989 an article by the Associated Press presented to the world the pager-watch, co-created by Motorola and Timex. It simply makes sense, designers thought, as these gadgets are central to our modern mobility, why not combine them? Thus the beginning of an evolutionary struggle over mobile form and function.

It has been twenty years since the "Moto-Ex" collaboration and we have yet to see this concept go mainstream. New attempts have been made since then, each time with a reference to Dick Tracy's somewhat prophetic wristwatch. In 2003 Samsung claimed to ship the world's first wristwatch style mobile phone with GSM/GPRS and an 8-bit color display. LG improved on that with an announcement at this January's CES, featuring a touch-screen interface and ability to make video calls. Most recently, rumors have bubbled up around a BlackBerry "Smartwatch" which acts not as a replacement to the smartphone, but as a companion that displays messages.

For many, the mobile phone has already consumed the wristwatch's time tracking function, yet designers persist on keeping this hybrid form factor on life support. Fixed to the arm does not seem to be an ideal solution for today's powerful mobile devices as they are being used to take pictures, record video, scan bar codes, and soon project 3D. Perhaps the rumored BlackBerry watch is on the right track, becoming an extension of our mobile computers, because while there are many possible futures, our mobile phones simply overpower the simple wristwatch.