Corvus Consulting

While reading about one person who is Happily Returning [his] iPhone & Getting Blackberry Back, I came across this comment about the maximum frequency for checking new mail:

I agree the 15 minutes to check email is a bit long though

I’m surprised to find myself feeling that 15 minutes both does and doesn’t seem like a long interval. Part of me wanted to say checking for new mail so much is frivolous, that anything less hardly leaves you time to deal with one set of emails before you want another to come in. Another part of me felt that familiar pull towards faster, towards the feeling of instantaneous connection.

The reasons for the 15 minute interval on the iPhone are pretty easy to grasp: wireless data networks are still preciously metered resources, and the usage model of the iPhone is different from sitting at your keyboard – you’re supposed to be out in the world, doin’ stuff!

But I think we can expect the technical capacity for checking email every few seconds to eventually happen. And we can expect that email’s speedy if limited cousins, Instant Messaging and Text Messaging (SMS) will keep learning new tricks, like attachments and inline images. At that point email will vibrate so quickly that it will feel just like IM/SMS (which feel more and more like the same thing). Like the venerable Neanderthal was (possibly) absorbed into the human lineage, email won’t be killed by IM and SMS; it will just become undifferentiated.

Technorati Tags: communication, iphone, philosophy