WIll MP3 players go away?

Russell Beattie comments on Dan Gillmor's statement in the recent Gillmore Gang. Asked if he had an iPod Gillmore responded "Yes, but I don't use it any more because I have a large memory card in my Treo."

Beattie says bingo. I say not a chance. First there is an inherent problem with the Treo platform. It is too small. Yes there is such a thing. When size makes for a crappy user interface it won't succeed. Although Apple doesn't appear to realize it the time has come to re-release the Newton. Of course it needs updating and needs to have the capacity to play audio, video and store more than a desktop computer.

The storage on Treo won't begin to compete with the likes of the iPod for years. I've had a string of palms devices, cell phones, and two-way pagers for years. I've tried at least every few months to try and move my simplest tasks to them - keep track of "to do's", addresses, calendars, and take notes at meetings. Once I find this I can do away with my paper calendar/planner. None come close. The note taking si by far the worst part. Even when using a keyboard (an extra device to port around anyway) then when I get back to the office I have to think about "syncing" to get the notes to where I can use them... and then again to get them to the device to take somewhere else, of course by then the device is full and I have to decide to delete some thing or another. So eventually I just admit defeat, delete the documents and go back to playing solitaire on the mobile device. With all the gyrations that are required to do it electronically it is much easier to hand write the notes and take a few minutes to review the meeting later and type any things that need to be transfered. I'd happily carry a device the size of the Newton if it would do what I need. (Not to mention that properly equipped it might even approach the level of a mobile podcasting studio.)