I recently received my new BlackBerry. I could no longer pretend that having one of the original clunky, black devices was retro chic and was delighted to get my slimmer, shiny silver model.

In a rare victory for grammarians, the new BlackBerry keyboard now features a semi-colon. Dependent clauses everywhere are rejoicing now that they may be properly joined in a sentence. There is a dollar sign now as well. Its omission on earlier models seemed odd given how indispensable PDAs quickly became to the capitalist class. Perhaps they didn’t want to offend those who trade in Pounds, Euros, Yen, and the rest. The front-mounted trackball that has replaced the side-mounted wheel for navigation (the latter of which also disconnected calls and was located exactly where my thumb wanted to be while I talked) and it is a joy to use.

But there is a larger trend at work: the desire of makers and users of mobile devices to have ever more features and ever smaller hardware profiles while our hands and eyes long for simpler and larger interfaces. It’s a well-documented fact that the population is aging. Europe is 10 years ahead of the U.S. and Asia is about 10 years behind, but overall the average population of the planet is aging. With age comes a little less dexterity, a few more pounds, a little less clarity of vision, a memory that isn’t quite as sharp -- all of which make it harder to operate smaller devices with smaller keyboards and more features that require the navigation of multiple menus.

Makers, however, seem fixated on the younger end of the market. Yes, they tend to be early adopters and view their devices as fashion accessories to be changed with the season. But the largest part of the market is squinting to see the tiny backlit keyboard. I’ve seen the accuracy of my typing go down by about a third because I am fat-fingering keys. I will use, at best, 25% of the features on this powerful little tool because I haven’t the time or expertise to figure them out.

Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management and I discussed this topic briefly at a conference last spring. Barry has a lot of insight on innovation and he told me I was crazy to think that devices would get larger to accommodate our physical limitations; I argued back that playing toward rather than against demographics would seem the smarter bet. Perhaps a new iPhone-like interface will make us both right. But please, before I need my next eye exam.

Note: This is my last weekly column. I'm moving to occasional contributor status. Thanks to you who have read regularly. I would like to leave you with three bits of must-reading:

Ben Stein’s “Everybody’s Business” column in the Sunday New York Times Business section. Ben is eloquent and insightful on the rewards and responsibilities of life as an executive and investor. He is unapologetic about the benefits of capitalism and this gives him authority he uses well to point out that tomfoolery such as the back-dating of stock options is just that. You should read his column and it should be required reading in every business curriculum. Unfortunately you have to pay to read his old columns.

“How to Have an Honest Conversation About Your Business Strategy,” by Michael Beer and Russ Eisenstadt (yes, you have to pay for this one as well). Power needs truth told to it more often and this article from Harvard Business Review lays out a practical method for accomplishing this without committing career suicide. The process works well beyond strategy, too. If your management won’t embrace this simple method, ask yourself some hard questions about why and what it means for you.

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, the new book by Bill Clinton. Whatever you think of his politics and peccadilloes, Clinton’s examples illustrate that there are no excuses for not taking action for change right now. Ghandi gave us inspiration with the exhortation to be the change you want to see in the world; Clinton has given us a field guide to getting started.

Be well. Make a difference.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Defeating Feature Fatigue (HBR Article)
Smart Product Design (HBR Article)
Principles for User Design of Customized Products (CMR Article)