Why ‘convergence’ for consumer IT products is no overused term

“Convergence” has been one of the most overworked — and I daresay, detested — buzzwords for a long time. However, we keep seeing more of it everywhere we look, especially in all sectors of consumer IT, so there must be a modicum of truth about it somewhere.

Hybrid cars are starting to get some traction, pardon the pun. iPods are the miniaturized convergence of music players and computers. Conveyors of content — television, DVDs, video, radio, broadband cable, and digital data — are being shoehorned into single-unit entertainment centers.

Mike Mitchell, director of Cisco Systems’ in-house IPTV network, told me the other day that the convergence of all electronic communication to IP is inevitable. (I’m working on an article on this very topic now, to be published here on ITMJ soon.)

So, that point being made, here’s another newsflash: Nokia, which already has a cell phone that doubles as a TV, has taken the convergence thing another step further with the new Swiss army knife of mobile phones it introduced this week.