Convergence

The MP3 player continues to go from strength to strength changing the way we and record companies think about music distribution and sales, MP3 players come in all shapes and sizes and the trend here continues to be bigger disks and the inclusion of video and stills storage. Perhaps 2005 will see Apple moving towards a colour screen on all Ipods and even the release of a micro pod with flash memory.

The biggest threat to the MP3 player chaps is the rise of the portable media player, these devices are not compromises but designed to handle multiple formats from the ground up. The likes of Archos and IRiver have brought us the first PMP's in 2004 but they have been a bit premature with just a few too many restrictions of teething problems, with Creative wading in at the end of the year we'll see the big boys joining the fray in the first few months of 2005.

The GPS SatNav system is finally making the leap from being a toy to a useful tool and indeed a must have on certain brands of car, the award winning TomTom go unit has sold by the thousands and brought GPS to the mass market. But what next for GPS in 2005? more unified devices seem certain with GPS appearing in more mobile phones and also in digital cameras allowing an image to be stored with its exact location and the next generation of SatNav with fully integrated traffic reports.

Mobile Phones look set to be the area of biggest change, 3G is finally a force to be reckoned with even if we don't yet know the use that will make them the must have gadgets of 2005. Companies such as 3 and Vodaphone paid a small fortune for their licenses so they fully intend to make a start on recouping that cash with a range of video and high data capacity services.

In turn this will drive the morphing of the mobile into the multi role device that consumers want, we already have phones with cameras over 1 mega pixel but 2005 will see smartphone taking on camera manufacturers with 3 mega pixel phones and proper lens technology.

This leads us nicely to convergence, its going to be a year of device marriage. The smartphone is centre stage for technology to be joined in unified devices, while we all want a GPS system, MP3 player and camera carrying them all requires specialist body warmers which look....naff!

Not that digital camera manufacturers or the Apple Ipod need worry just yet, there will always be room for quality devices, similar to the way that HiFi separates survived the combined HiFi system of the late nineties. But 2005 will see smartphones with a hard drive and MP3 player functions, smartphones with good resolution stills and video technology and even smartphones with inbuilt GPS.

It's going to be a year of rapid change and one where our pockets get collectively lighter both from the reduction in the number of gadgets and the loss of cash to upgrade to them!

As always the Lordpercy.com team will be bringing your the best of the gadget world in 2005, a year that promises to be a roller coaster.

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