Facebook and YouTube are in their larval states. AOL Instant Messenger is still extremely popular. Various phones were integrating limited browser functions, but with mobile phones like the RAZR, texting was still the primary form of communication.
It was into this environment that Sony, a company known for being willing to try weird experiments, released a device called the "mylo COM-1"in September of 2006. The name stood for MY Life Online, and it was a little miniature tablet thingie with a slide-out keyboard. It could run a web browser and do email anywhere there was a wifi signal.
Thing is, despite being targeted largely at teens who didn't have cell phones, it had a sort of jellybean Playskool "My First Toy Handheld" look about it and cost $350 at launch. That was a lot of clams for something that looked like a kiddie toy and had a crude 2.4" 320x240 pixel display.
So less than a year and a half later, in January of 2008, Sony dropped the "mylo COM-2" on the market. The COM-2 was slicker and more adult-looking, sharing its form factor with the PlayStation Portable.
It had a tack-sharp 3" 640x480 LCD that added touchscreen functionality, and a tethered stylus was included, attached to the neoprene carrying sleeve. They keyboard was improved, and was now backlit. There were menu shortcuts for the most popular communications apps of the day...
The browser now supported Flash for playing YouTube videos and online games. There was a 1.3MP camera on the backside with a convex mirror next to the lens for taking selfies. The desktop could be configured with your most-used apps.
It had its own built-in music and video players, and a photo album. It had a feed reader and built-in games. It could transmit music and pictures to other nearby mylos.
It was really a slick little device...
Thing is, between the launch of the COM-1 and COM-2, it was almost instantly rendered obsolete by the announcement of the iPhone, which could do all of this stuff and then some. Plus, you know, you could use the Apple device to make phone calls.
The COM-2, launched in January for $299 (yes, all that added capability over the COM-1 came with a fifty dollar price cut; Sony could see the writing on the wall) and by the 2008 holiday season was being fire-saled for $199. Slow sales caused it to be quietly discontinued by the end of the following year.
Smartphones and tablets killed a lot of categories: They decimated handheld GPS's and cheap cameras and palmtop computers; they cut deeply into the sales of calculators and handheld games and MP3 players. The one thing they killed that almost nobody remembers is the "smart not-phone", since it was only around for a year or so and sank without a ripple.
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6 comments:
I had a Sony Clié (Palm OS) about that time. It was my 3rd PDA. I also had a classic flip phone and I remember really eagerly anticipating the day when the two devices would be combined.
Since I'm not an Apple-person, I went with the early Windows CE phone for my first smart phone. I especially liked that I could read Baen's DRM-free digital library on it.
Thanks for commenting!
I remember the Clie as being one of the slicker Palm OS devices. I had the wantsies for one.
I really liked mine. If sony had made a Clie smartphone, I would've snatched it up.
The biggest downside was that it used Sony proprietary memory sticks (shocker.) They were about the size of a stick of gum. Regular SD cards would have been better.
Sony held on to their Betamaxed memory card format way too long, too. The mylo COM-2 has a Memory Stick slot, too, even though SD was the industry standard by '08.
This is the first time I've seem this blog. I've been reading VFTP for over a decade, and the occasional Arms Room posting. But not this one. It's a delight, because I entered the Low End Mac realm when a friend gave me his old iBook G4. Then a customer at a shop I worked at gave me his old G3 (white polycarbonate). I'm trying to max both out now, with batteries being the biggest issue. Across the room from me are my wife's old Lombard and Bondi blue iMac.
Now I'm reading your old LEM posts (don't cringe, they're quite enjoyable). As always, thank you for writing.
Antibubba,
Thank you for the kind words!
Bobbi's latest project is some corner shelves in the living room, which will be used for storing some old Macs in a more accessible place. There may be some fresh content along those lines here shortly!
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