In the latest installment of his weekly column, “Consumed”, Rob Walker of The New York Times Magazine asks me about the Treo 600 and why it’s become this year’s “It” gadget:
The practical explanation is that the Treo 600 is so handy, packing enough functions into one package to let users reduce their gadget count. (Which is also a rationale for that high price.) This, after all, is what’s probably driving a broader shift toward ”converged devices,” as Kevin Burden, an analyst at the research firm IDC, calls them. But Rojas, who has a Treo 600 himself, identifies a less quantifiable appeal of this particular device: it’s a hit at parties. ”I show the phone to everybody,” he says. ”People see it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I want one.’
“I’m not talking about goofy people,” he quickly clarifies. ”It does things that will impress your nontech friends. It’s hard to impress people by saying, ‘It syncs with my exchange server.’ You know, who cares? But it does things that people understand.” So he has, he says, literally stood around at social gatherings demonstrating its instant-messenger function, playing the new OutKast video or showing clips of the infamous Paris Hilton sex tape.
I really don’t remember saying “goofy people” (I thought I said “geeky people”, a category in which I fully include myself), but I missed my chance to correct any misquotes when the Times Magazine’s fact-checker called me to confirm everything, so I’ll have to live with it. Believe me, no offense was intended to any of the goofy people out there.
