How long before phone-based uw cases eat the low end computers?

[Ryebrye]

I see a handful of things similar to the kraken on kickstarter. They are all pretty similar, they have a housing for the phone to let you use it as a camera underwater and they also add a pressure guage to get depth underwater. Some add an auxiliary battery or a fill light.

The diveroid likes to talk up how it is also a dive computer.

The form factor is not ideal for a computer - but the trend seems to be headed in this direction that these thousand-dollar-plus smartphones we carry around with us everywhere and have tons of computing power could easily run pretty advanced software on them to be a very compelling dive computer.

The interfaces I've seen so far on the diveroids etc don't seem that advanced. Once the sensor and case are in place, it becomes a software problem. Once it is a software problem, it the dive computer part of it could advance very quickly.

It wasn't so long ago that car gps units were displaced by software running on a smartphone. I don't think it will be much longer before a segment of the dive computer market is taken over by the smartphone-in-a-case. (Especially since the dive computer will then also be a good quality camera)

I don't think the dedicated unit will go away, especially for applications where the form-factor is key (a lot of casual runners use apps on their phone to record their runs. Serious runners almost always use a dedicated running smartwatch)

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

[The Chairman]

It's hard for them to keep up with the phone changes. I'm changing phones every two years, do I really want to buy a new housing along with that?

 

[irycio]

It's hard for them to keep up with the phone changes. I'm changing phones every two years, do I really want to buy a new housing along with that?

Depends entirely on the cost of the case I guess. If the cost of changing your phone into a PDC was split between the app and the case, I could imagine (not sure if a viable) a business model where the cost of changing the case even few times would still render the whole solution sensible money-wise.

Still, I like my computer on my wrist/arm and having my hands free. I went for a small smartphone, and if I encased it it would still be much larger than perdix or even eon steel .

 

[The Chairman]

Still, I like my computer on my wrist/arm

The camera on the latest Samsung is incredible. That, and I could read Kindle on long safety stops would be a big plus.

 

[Sifossifoco]

Assuming that smartphones would not be a good replacement computer for technical diving, they may have a space in recreational diving as long as the case will cost significantly less than an entry level dedicated diving computer. Personally, I would rather buy a $200 computer than any $100 (or more...) phone case. At least if something stops working and gets flooded it won't be a $1000 smartphone.
In theory you could have everything, including camera, compass, AI, diving computer, heart rate monitor, light and... kindle (love the idea) in one single underwater device, but do I want to dive with such a huge single point of failure?

 

[Ryebrye]

Assuming that smartphones would not be a good replacement computer for technical diving, they may have a space in recreational diving as long as the case will cost significantly less than an entry level dedicated diving computer. Personally, I would rather buy a $200 computer than any $100 (or more...) phone case. At least if something stops working and gets flooded it won't be a $1000 smartphone.
In theory you could have everything, including camera, compass, AI, diving computer, heart rate monitor, light and... kindle (love the idea) in one single underwater device, but do I want to dive with such a huge single point of failure?

That's my biggest concern too is the single point of failure. I'd still dive with a computer just in case the phone has a case of the "wooopsies" and the battery dies when you're at the bottom of a long dive. My biggest fear isn't so much the case failing but me somehow dropping the thing.

The cases start out by bleeding all the air out with either a level to pump out air or a little vacuum pump inside the case (lever seems more practical) If a good vacuum is achieved before you get in the water (and the cases all seem to have some sort of vacuum indicator) then hopefully the same seals keeping air out at 1ATM can keep water out at depth.

The cases coming out now (and there seems to be a bumper crop of them popping up on Kickstarter now - all of them pretty similar) are "universal" so just about any smartphone can fit into it that has the cameras in a spot close to the top corner.

They seem to have dedicated buttons that control their app. The touch screen wont work through the case, the first generation of these phone cases will probably not work well with third party apps. Android devices have good support for external control devices like keyboard / mouse - it seems like it would be doable to add a little 4-button D-pad with a click button to move a cursor around the screen to get a fairly basic way to access any native android app (kindle etc).

Cost wise, the kickstarter ones are coming around $300ish for the case + pressure sensor to let it be a computer or $200ish for the case without a pressure sensor (for people who just want to use the phone as a camera). They all claim that they will be more expensive when they come to market. Realistically with the competition that seems to be blooming I think there will be a race to the bottom on case price over time. (The same case could be used for boaters who want a beefy case to throw their phone in and attach a floaty device too and then dive underwater and not be worried about how much they really trust the IPX68 rating on their phone)

I think it will be an interesting space to watch. I'm really curious to see how it plays out over time

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

I don’t see that happening (actually taking a big chunk out of the dive computer market). The battery life on cell phones...even my new-ish iPhone...is pathetic compared to a dive computer. I would be shocked if a cell phone running memory intensive programs (ex. A theoretical dive computer app) would last for more than a handful of hours before it would croak. You would likely have to plug it in to charge on surface intervals, which would get old.

How about intermittent poor performance due to need for software updates? I can’t wrap my head around trusting a cell phone enough to use it as a dive computer.

 

[Edward3c]

I've got a universal phone housing, rated to 60m. It cost £20 (US$26.25) and has a negative pressure test facility.

Not got round to testing in on a dive yet, but my old Samsung would fit.

 

[Rygar]

Diveroid transforms your smartphone into a underwater dive computer - Geeky Gadgets
The iGills SE-35 transforms your iPhone into a dive computer
or this
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Divextras_tablet_housing.jpg?1604678775764
Dive Xtras | Wikiwand

 

[Johnoly]

..I don't think it will be much longer

Just my 2 cents,,,But nothing changes in the dive industry overnite (except pandemics)

You can break it down into segments like ....Dive Computers....still photography....video cameras....instant connectivity.

The young divers are all posting short videos not so much pictures anymore. I'd guess it would be GoPro's that get hurt 1st because of the superior on-board color correction software of the phones today.