Media Convergence? What does it mean to you anyway?...... well, in general, it is a two or more distinct entities combined together and with the word "convergence" is so increasingly prevalent in the new era... it more suitable to relate with combination of two or more technologies in a single device.... getting clear? think of Smartphone or to make it simple.... your iPhone that you are owning it right now... what can your iPhone does? multitasking?, taking a simple photo of you and your friends? or even simply just play your music and turn your phone into MP3 player? or even send a quick message to your friends?......Convergence may influence consumer in accepting new technologies like tablet pc (iPad,Galaxy Tab, Playbook) are more increasingly popular and with the bulky size..people still want to own it...why? because its new technology anyway.....and one of the good example would be analog is slowly disappear in newer generations and all now is done by digital way like our local newspaper TheStar, they also provide us their news in online portal for those who wants timely news and get fast update like football scores...like Chelsea vs Liverpool match and with online you get instant results..not by waiting until next day.... everything is quick...that is the key that most organization practicing now...
The good thing of convergence is able to do whatever we in a same device....think of multitasking capability... like your mobile phone turn into camera, mp3 player, video recorder, reading online news on the go and many more....
The bad thing is....with so many features in today's devices like our Iphone or smartphones.... it has becoming like a computer and can you still define a mobile phone or come to think of it, even watches also comes with all kinds of feature like storing phone numbers, making phone calls and so on....watch or smart-watch? how do you define a watch or a mobile phone where is not offering what it is?
In the nutshell, whatever improvement has done towards our latest devices like gaming console, mobile phones, even we do see watches that able to make calls, or even our cars powered by engines are soon to be replace by electric, reading online news...but we are still relying on the great old inventors that help us to became up till today... and everything we do these days saves us time and costs are greatly reduced too... simply type in "Latest news in town" and Mr.Google will do the job.........pretty fast and convenience isn't it?.... or stuck with your assignment half way...Mr.Google will do the job too..... unlike great old days where you have to go to the library and search for books that takes up lot of time....
I agree the way you describe about convergence and gave those points that directly and clearly for the convergence. Convergence will just keep improving,just like what we can see in the market, Iphone, Ipad, and others. People will keep update themselves by buying those update and new arrival technologies. Hence, will laptop and desktop will being replace by others technologies in the future? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteyeah....with all the great technologies..i cannot think anymore great technologies in future. we have touch screen now.. whats next? maybe phone from your palm...haha..
ReplyDeleteHi Weng Loong!
ReplyDeleteWell, media convergence to me is like an era in which we are creating more and more 'all-in-one' package. Good and bad in a way. We need not spend more money to buy more devices which can allow us to conduct more activities. Everything can be done in one device, as you said, in one laptop, one iPhone, even one watch.
I think you had highlighted an important point which makes me ponder. "We want things fast. As fast as we can." Isn't it true? Somehow, I feel that media convergence has also make us lazier, in a way which we can't wait for new information. We are becoming more and more impatient. I would say media converging it's a good and bad thing - good because it gets work done in a more effective, flexible, and faster way; bad because, as you said, the definition of individual items are blurring, which I think it's actually defeating the purpose of the individual items' existence in the first place.
And sooner or later, we would turn into robots who depend on technological and electronic devices to move on in our lives.
Isn't this bad?
I agree with you Loong! Even our Coffee has convergence happening in that small particular packet. Sugar! Coffee Powder! & CREAMER! 3 in 1! There we go convergence! Everything is starting to become one as a whole, perhaps even if looking at our country as well which hopefully the tagline of One Malaysia, which eventually everyone will become one as a whole. However, relating back to the digital technologies, I totally agree with the point on smart phones, everything is getting dependent upon one another for electronics especially, for example a phone as you mention, may have camera, touch screen, mp3, computerize functions and many more, thus these electronics companies will of course somehow be interdependent upon one another, even talk about phone chargers will be simple, realize how the Nokia phone charger can also be used on Blackberries, and so many more.
ReplyDelete@ suwern..yes...everything has it good and bad side of it... as for this...we rely so much on the latest new technologies that enables us to retrieve quick information and thus making us becoming lazier without realizing it. people these days demands more and getting lazier.. for instance.. walking to the bookstore to buy a newspaper for morning reading is getting lesser among the younger generations these days because everything can be accessed online... one click and news is there...
ReplyDelete@NKH
ReplyDeleteconvergence are everywhere.... so brilliant that you can even think of the usb micro charger...haha.. i think one day everything will be standardized and only done with one main product to make the rest working... or even we can see headphones port for phones are standardized by providing the 3.5mm jackphone... flexibility of using all kinds of headphones for consumer preference.
Hey Weng Loong
ReplyDeleteWe are moving into an era now that people want things to packed into small packages just like our smartphones which pretty much can do everything a laptop can.
Also, as you mention saving time, now we can just flick out our phones and browse the web easily now whilst back then we have to either drag out our laptop or go home to surf the net. Now we live in age where speed defines the winner and i dare say being ahead of the competition is just winning half of the battle.