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The man who invented the mobile phone while at Motorola, Martin Cooper, says that the devices have become too complicated today. At a privacy conference in Madrid this week, he railed against the multifunction nature of today’s modern phones.

The 80 year old Cooper delivered the following:

Whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well. Our future I think is a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives.

While I agree that some phones may have too many whiz-bang features for the average consumer, I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. And when it comes to the likes of smartphones, it’s hard to even judge them from the standards of previous dumbphones. High megapixel cameras may not have been very useful on older generation phones, but smartphones open a wealth of options with 3G data speeds–and easy access to features like e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook. Smartphones now resemble portable computers more than they do phones.

It’s a shame such an accomplished scientist can remain so backwards in his thinking. Nobody is saying that your iPhone camera will replace your DSLR, or even your dedicated point and shoot, what’s important is that it’s there and ready for you to use instantly on an Internet-enabled device. Like some people say, sometimes the best camera is the one that’s with you.

[Source: Telegraph]