Mobile devices: Mind the gap

There are few remaining physical formats left for mobile gadget makers to cover.

You can buy watch-like digital devices with one inch screens and giant wall projectors able to display images that are many metres high.

Almost every imaginable screen size in between is catered for by one gadget or another. Along the way are small smartphones, medium ones and giant-sized phones.

All manner of tablets

There a mini-tablets, standard tablets and big tablets. Laptop screens run from less than 10 inches to more than 18. Desktop displays go up to 36 inches and beyond, wall-mounted displays can be 60 inches – there are even bigger ones.

Most, but not all, digital gadgets can capture and show images – both moving pictures and stills. Many devices have microphones and speakers to record and play sound. They can connect to the internet. They can send data to the cloud and retrieve it.

Sure they do these things with a varying degree of success.

Smaller than the eye can see

There are highlights: displays with pixels packed so tightly the human eye can’t detect individual spots are no longer a luxury.Fabulous high-resolution cameras and remarkably good sounding built-in speakers are not hard to find. My latest phone even includes image stablisation technology.

And, for the most part, these features are all affordable. At least they are within the financial reach of ordinary people.

Innovation is far from dead. This year saw the arrival of practical technology to turn a smartphone into a mobile wallet. No doubt fresh ways to package digital devices will emerge with time, but for now just about every conceivable niche is occupied. There is no unclaimed territory.