Tolkien may be onto something … – and the cell phone industry certainly seems ready to embrace the concept of “One Device to do it all.” Smart phones have become the multi-tool of the 21st century, although I’m personally still eagerly awaiting the first models to feature a folding knife and a pair of pliers in the accessories list. Preferably, this phone would be rubberized, water and dirt proof too.

Meanwhile, I am excited to see that it’s getting easier to use smart phones to find these dirty, wet places. Last week, Google announced it will offer free GPS service for smart phones using its open-source Android operating system. Google’s announcement instantly led to a decrease in the stock values of traditional GPS for-pay services and device providers Garmin and TomTom by 16 and 21 percent, respectively, according to the New York Times. Google’s free navigation system comes with all you expect from a GPS device: 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic route recalculation. All you need is a smart phone.

And today, Motorola is releasing its newest smart phone, the Droid, which instantly starts Google’s GPS navigation app once placed in the car bracket (sold separately). Now we’re talking one smart phone. Unlike Apple’s iPhone, the Droid can multi-task apps – it can be used as a navigation tool while you’re talking on the phone and listening to MP3s.  Oh, yes, and unlike the iPhone, the Droid – and certainly any new smart phone to follow – is totally customizable; you can consolidate all your e-mail accounts, the OS supports Microsoft’s Exchange e-mail, and you can add your Facebook and Twitter widgets to the home screen. You want a knife and an LED flashlight with that? Sure.

But Google’s free GPS app is just the beginning. Within the next two years, smart phones will be outperforming the laptop, says Bob Tedeschi, New York Times technology columnist. He adds that today’s new smart phones can do almost anything a PC could do in 2007.

For instance, Nokia’s senior vice president Henry Tirri says cell phone camera lenses will double as binoculars, and even augment reality by fetching close-up images of what’s up there in the distance from the internet. Software that knows what you want, makes reservations for you based on general requests for “something casual, Italian and fairly close to work” is also on the horizon, according to reports coming from cell phone manufacturer SRI International’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. SRI also hints that within a couple of years, typing on a touch screen will feel like hitting individual keys.

Now, if only someone would recognize the need to harness all of these capabilities in a more rugged device… and I’d like that folding knife and pliers with my next cell.

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But it sounds like Starz (the data source) is using a more encompassing definition of “online” than mine. Theirs appears to be everything that is not TV, which includes iPods, xBox, PS2 and Netflix streaming — as well as Current.tv and Hulu. So this universe is much larger than YouTube or GoogleVideo.

The Starz data suggest we’re still a nation of couch potatoes: 9-in-10 percent report watching live TV weekly. Although half watch DVDs weekly, the true nascent market is mobile, with 12 percent reporting weekly consumption. These data come from Will Richmond at VideoNuze, a broadband video news and analysis website.

The consumption area with the greatest gender divide was online video (66% male, 58% female). In other categories, the spread was 1-4 points.

Starz (or their market research firm, Synovate) has coined the term “televidualists” for the 18 percent who, at least once a week, watch full-length TV shows or movies through non-traditional channels such as xBox or AppleTV, a mobile phone, or an MP3/video player like an iPod. Demographically, this group is more likely to be younger and live in a larger household than the general U.S. population.

The “televidualist” is also more likely to watch video, period, than the rest of the U.S. population.

Back in September I probably would not have fit into this category. Today, I’m pretty close. I’ve watched a Netflix streamed “tv” show three times in the past four weeks. (OK, I’ve also had a cold.) But I bought the last season of Atlantis on iTunes, and watched some shows on my laptop and a few iPod-to-TV.

But I rarely watch live TV. The closest I come is this: I let the show buffer into DVR memory for at least a half hour before starting, so that I can skip the commercials. One exception to the skipping rule: the SuperBowl, which is worth watching primarily because of the commercials!

And unlike the 70 percent of the Starz survey sample who do not anticipate a change in their video viewing habits in the next five years, I am absolutely certain that mine will change. There will be more live streaming, via my MacMini or a PS3 or some yet-to-be-invented device. There will be (please) a DVR that is not Verizon’s or Tivo. (I really should check out the ReplayTV software.)

Characteristics of the person likely to watch long-form (I think) video nine or more times a week:

• male (56%)
• income ($70K)
• household size (mean, 3.2)
• ethnicity: white (73%), black (13%), other (10%), Asia/Pacific (3%)

Go to Will’s post and download the PDF with highlights from the survey.

Survey Methodology:
Representative sample (4,000, 18+ years of age; 1,500, 12-17 years of age); September-October 2008. It’s not clear from the high level summary if “online” is also a shorthand for “alternative” channels like xBox, AppleTV and hand-held devices.

The post first appeared at WiredPen.

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