Food Network TV personality Alton Brown has a thing against unitaskers– kitchen gadgets that only perform one task. Outside of the kitchen, standalone gadgets are under pressure from increasingly multi-functional handsets. Smartphones have basically become digital Swiss Army knives.
A couple months ago, I did a thought experiment. I thought up the main functions that I used on my phone and then decided to price out how much it would cost to replicate them with single-function devices. The result? A pile of gadgets that cost $1,228.11 and weighed over eight pounds.
The list included: a feature phone, music player, point-and-shoot camera, GPS, alarm clock, flashlight, calculator, handheld gaming device, ebook reader, guitar tuner, voice recorder, electronic dictionary, remote and a box for making video Skype calls.
I don’t use all those functions every day, but that’s actually an argument in favor of consolidation. What’s the point in carrying a niche device around on the off-chance that I’ll actually need it? The amount of stuff I have to cart with me has gone down drastically in the past couple of years, to the betterment of my back, wallet and the environment.
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