I Want You To Kill One More

Cisco's recent announcement that it was closing its Flip mini-camcorder business got us thinking. It'southward pretty clear that today'due south smartphones, with their excellent Hd video cameras, are partly to blame for the Flip's demise. But how many other consumer products and services–digital or analog–are being killed off by the big, bad smartphone?

We've assembled a list of likely victims here. If yous know of other smartphone-induced casualties, please tell us in the Comments section–or contact your local police force enforcement authorities. Allow's kickoff with the most obvious victims…

MP3 Players

When was the final time you lot carried a digital music player that couldn't do a dozen other things, besides? When Apple tree unveiled the original iPhone in 2007, the die was cast: Portable sound devices incapable of doubling every bit gaming machines and Spider web browsers (run across: iPod Touch) would slowly fade away. And the latest iPod Touch, which includes FaceTime video chat, is essentially a Wi-Fi video phone itself. Yes, the iPod Archetype is still around, but its days may be numbered. And though Apple continues to ring upwardly immense profits, its iPod business has been in decline for some time.

Portable Game Consoles

The Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP are still selling, but these portable game gadgets seem like relics from an era when people used cell phones strictly to brand and receive calls. Today's smartphone, of course, is a gaming juggernaut: App stores for Apple and Android handsets offer tens of thousands of games. And so why carry around a separate game console? And though console makers are stepping up their efforts, the smartphone guys are right there with them. Do y'all require a new Nintendo 3DS for spectacles-gratis 3D gaming? Well, 3D smartphones like the LG Thrill and HTC EVO 3D promise a similar thrill.

Bespeak-and-Shoot Cameras

An inexpensive indicate-and-shoot similar the $250 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V probably takes better pictures than your smartphone. Only before long, the apprehensive telephone photographic camera will match or surpass the photographic prowess of its point-and-shoot brethren. The latest handsets–in particular, the iPhone 4–capture crisp, clear images that many users consider suitable for scrapbooks and slideshows. Pretty shortly, you'll park the betoken-and-shoot in the closet for expert.

Personal Video Players

Remember Archos's lineup of portable media players? How about Apple tree'due south iPod Video fifth Generation? Both were built for video and audio consumption, two capabilities that have since migrated to the jack-of-all-trades smartphone. And today's plus-size handsets, such as the HTC ThunderBolt–with high-resolution, 4-inch-or-larger displays and 4G data speeds capable of handling Hard disk drive video streaming–are the final blast in the coffin. The stand-lone portable media actor is a goner.

Voice Recorders

"Note to cocky: Buy jacket with extra pockets to hold voice recorder, PDA, cell phone…" That'south a vocalism memo from my digital recorder, circa 2001. Okay, not actually–but my bespeak is that stand up-alone phonation recorders were even so some other digital device to carry around. No wonder they've gone the fashion of the PDA (see beneath). Dirt-cheap recorders such as the $29 Sony ICD-BX800 and the $54 Olympus VN-8100PC persist, but a smartphone with an app like the gratis RecForge Free (for Android) or the $2 Voice Tape (for iPhone) is the sensible choice for any pocket-challenged gadget lover.

Why purchase a separate GPS device for your car when your smartphone can perform the same tasks? Portable navigation hardware from major GPS players such as Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom are accept grown more powerful and more affordable, but GPS-enabled smartphones deliver similar functionality. Interestingly, GPS vendors may be contributing to the demise of their portable devices by offering apps similar Garmin's StreetPilot, which provides plow-by-plough directions for smartphone users. Hey, if yous can't beat 'em, bring together 'em.

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

It manages your contacts! It has a to-practise listing! It tracks expenses! Yes, the PDA was a handy contrivance dorsum in the day when a 25-pound desktop PC and a fifty-pound CRT monitor seemed welded to every workstation. But as cellphones began to acquire PDA capabilities in 2001, it became obvious that the phoneless digital assistant's days were numbered. Today, the term "PDA" sounds equally anachronistic every bit "Pocket PC." So once again, today's smartphones are pocket PCs, aren't they?

Wristwatch

Ever see a twenty-something rocking a wristwatch as a necessity, rather than equally a fashion accessory? Probably not. The smartphone has become the 21st Century pocket watch, while the wristwatch has become, well, your father'southward timepiece. This may alter, however, if tech-savvy watchmakers succeed in rekindling consumer interest in the arm-set up timekeeper. In fact, the wristwatch's resurgence may already be underway, at least in some geek circles. Sony introduced an Android-based wristwatch terminal year, and some clever techies have managed to turn the multitouch iPod Nano into a watch.

Paper Maps

When's the final time you bought a paper map? Do y'all notwithstanding use them? A smartphone devotee may unfold a map every now and so, merely only equally a navigational tool of terminal resort. Mobile map apps from Google, MapQuest, and Bing provide directions, satellite images, and search tools that paper can't match. But it'due south wise to keep a paper map on mitt as a backup, especially if you're driving in an area where wireless signals are weak. And GPS mapping tools have been known to give bad directions every in one case in a while.

411 Directory Assistance

Google Mobile'south Vox Search.

A contempo New York Times article lamented the lost fine art of the phone call, simply what well-nigh the 411 phone call? A savvy smartphone user is more likely to admission costless online tools such as Google's voice search than to make a traditional directory-assistance telephone call. Former habits die hard, however. Co-ordinate to a Snopes.com from October 2010, U.S. consumers were still placing virtually 6 billion calls to 411 services per year, even though phone companies had switched to charging $1 or more per call. Nevertheless, the directory assistance of the future seems probable to be automatic, online, and (maybe) gratuitous.

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