The Growing Battle of Mobile vs.

PC

I am really amazed at the way the cell phone technology has grown. Now-a-days we can do
everything with the cellphone. Now with the business series we can do even more. We can Connect
to internet, call, email, fax, calender, reminder, alarm, camera, audio, video, TV, .......

The buzz is so loud it’s deafening: goodbye PC/laptop, hello mobile device. All the excitement and
innovation seems to be around mobile devices, and PCs (and I include laptops in this category) are
yesterday’s legacy toast.

The classic: IBM's 5150, released in 1981. A little tough to lug around, though.

Where are we heading? Will cell phones replace the computers one day?

Will computers be replaced by mobile phones when the time comes? This is now becoming a
question of a lot of people since mobile phones are now slowly developing that it can already enable
you to do the tasks that you can do with a computer such as playing your favorite game, surfing the
internet, streaming videos on social networking sites, taking pictures, and even sending and
receiving emails and text messages.

Today, there are already more than 1.5 billion of cell phone units that have been produced over the
years. This only shows that a lot of people are now using mobile phones. These people may use their
cell phones for necessity and some just for luxury.

techmind:

Mobile phones are becoming more and more sophisticated and are getting good enough to do some
basic web-browsing such as a Google search to find local taxi companies, to check the weather
forecast, news headlines, traffic report, summon Google maps, or check out what friends are doing
on Facebook.
That said, the experience falls far short of what you could do with a proper laptop.

-I'm not aware that any phone on the market could connect to a full-size screen (this is somewhat
outside the remit of a phone)

-I think some of the smartphones do have some accessory keyboards - but they still won't be as
ergonomic as a proper keyboard

-the internet connection can be reasonable if you have a good "3G" mobile-phone signal, but when
you're out of coverage the speeds are agonisingly slow (virtually like an old dial-up modem)

-You should be aware that the phone networks often intercept your web-browsing to give a cut-
down version of the web (faster to download) with shrunk images and other dynamic reformatting.
This can 'break' some websites (especially those with complicated layout and not really intended for
mobile use) and make them unusable on your phone.

In-built digital cameras in phones are great as a freebie, but the resolution is a bit below what you'd
get on a stand-alone digital camera, they'll rarely have a proper flash, and the low-light performance
is pretty ropey. Given that the camera module in a phone adds no more than a dollar or two to the
handset cost, what do you expect? Also the lens gets scuffed and covered with dust and pocket-lint,
so after a few months the picture quality will be degraded compared to when the phone was new.

Probably you could listen to internet radio on some advanced models (provided the 3G signal was
good enough), but you'd probably run the battery down in a few hours, and your contracted data-
allowance may get used up pretty fast (radio might well be 40 megabytes per hour or something).

What you might consider is what they call a 'netbook' which is a somewhat cut-down and slimmer
laptop, typically running Windows or Linux with integrated 3G data-modem which works off the
mobile phone network. In the UK at least you can buy these from the phone companies on a
contract model where you pay £25/month (perhaps US$40/month) for a 2-3 year contract which
pays for both the computer and the ongoing data-service. By the end of the contract you own the
netbook (no, or minimal up-front payment).

I have 3G (mobile-network based) data-modem USB dongle which gives "broadband" internet. If I
only ever used this with a laptop, on the move, I'd be thrilled with it. In reality I use it as my home
broadband with my desktop computer (I'm in rented accomodation and didn't want to commit to
long wired-broadband contracts)... it works reasonably well, but it has a number of teething troubles
indicative of an immature technology and is a passable, but poor, substitute for real wired
broadband. I suspect how well it works depends on the operators attitude to it, and we get the
impression in the UK that its a far lower priority than voice-calls! I don't know what things are like in
the USA

The convergence between mobile phones and 'conventional' personal computers (including laptops
and netbooks) is a certainty.

The issues needing to be addressed are the screen size, data input and control, and of course,
power.

The screen and data input/control issues will eventually be solved by in-eye laser projection systems.
The in-eye projection system will also incorporate a scanner so that it can also be used for iris scan
identification, so that several different people can be simultaneously identified and fed customised
feeds. The same technology will also handle data input by overlaying a virtual keyboard, where
needed, and handle control by tracking gestures.

I'd be surprised if the in-eye projection and scanner system hasn't already been prototyped by now,
but power is still looking to be a bit of a problem for the foreseeable future.

IDC just published a report that proclaims “the PC-centric era is over.” According to a summary in
the New York Times, IDC predicts that within 18 months, “non-PC devices capable of running
software applications will outsell PCs. In tablets. Apple’s iPad will remain the leader, but lower-cost
tablets will begin making inroads, especially as demand for tablets really takes off in emerging
markets.”

IDC predicts that by next year, “half of the 2.1 billion people who regularly use the Internet will do so
using non-PC devices.”

In another perspective, iPass just issued the results of a survey that highlights research that 37
percent of workers thought another device would soon take the role of PCs/laptops, and 27 percent
believed it would be the iPad or another tablet.

In a commentary posted at TechCrunch, Steve Cheney talks about the significant shift in emphasis
taking place from the PC model to small form-factor mobile devices. As Cheney describes it: “On the
heels of the latest Android phone, the Sprint HTC EVO, and … iPhone 4, it seems like mobile devices
and platforms are innovating at about five times the pace of personal computers. Rapid
advancement in mobile is often attributed to the natural disruption by which emerging industries
innovate quickly, while established markets like PCs follow a slower, more sustained trajectory … It’s
very likely that within five years, tablets, smartphones, and other ‘mobile devices’ will have
permanently left PC innovation behind.”

There’s no denying that mobility is the rule of the new workplace and workforce going forward,
especially in this hyper-competitive era. Salespeople visiting prospects can enter essential data and
provide on-the-spot quotes. Insurance field adjusters can move about their assignments with these
devices, providing real-time feeds to central offices to help quickly settle open claims. It’s a lot easier
to move about with a mobile device than to lug a laptop. Plus, there’s no fussing with operating
systems – it just turns on and off.

However, are mobile devices really capable of doing much of the heavy lifting required in the daily
workloads of many managers and employees? On a mobile device, creating documents would be all-
thumbs. It would have been too painful to try to write this blog post from my smartphone. And I
don’t think anyone would enjoy the experience of cranking out a 40-page research project or white
paper from a mobile device.

How would a customer service operation fare if representatives were sitting at their desks looking at
small-screen mobile devices? Would you want your purchasing people entering purchase order and
financial information into mobile phones?

There is the third way — touchscreen tablet and lightweight, inexpensive netbooks, which are
laptops that meet the smartphones halfway. And yes, you can hook mobile devices to keyboards
and even monitors to provide a larger-footprint experience. But then you’re essentially back to
having a PC.

Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney pondered thus question in a Network World article last year.
“Smartphones are still content consumption devices, not content creation ones. Every knowledge
worker has to do content creation, so you’ve got to have a desktop or a laptop to do it.”

“If you’re going to be crunching numbers on an Excel spreadsheet or writing documents all day long,
you’re not going to want to do that on a BlackBerry,” says one user quoted in the Network World
article, who relies on a cheap PC to get heavy-lifting work done back at the office. “But if you’re
managing people and on the phone a lot, or in sales and going on a quick overnighter to see a client,
you could make a good case for traveling light with just a BlackBerry.”
Yes, there’s no denying that mobile devices are the wave of the future. But we’ll still be seeing a lot
of “traditional” PCs and laptops in that future as well. PCs and mobile devices will co-exist, and will
blend and overlap in form and functionality. It’s likely that PCs/laptops will adopt much of the look
and feel of mobile devices — in fact, monitors with touch-screen capabilities are already on the
market. And — very important — PCs and mobile devices will even run many of the same
applications.

In content-rich environments, it doesn’t seem feasible that full-screen PCs and laptops will go away
anytime soon. For heavy-duty, heads-down work, you need that PC footprint.

As a fact, there is a German communication scientist named Riepl who formulated a law which
postulates that new media never completely replace older ones. Rather some form of co-existence
develops which also incorporates new usage patterns that the new media may have introduced.

Conclusion: No phone will ever take the place of a computer because of one issue-battery life.that is
why I am waiting for a Playbook to complement my Torch 9800.

Mobile phones today has lots of applications and programs that make it a formidable electronic
device that can match the computer, But maybe the on the issue that the mobile might face if it will
really match up to a computer is that you can’t easily upgrade it hardware not like the computer
where you can just plug and play the device or modification you have just added.

Cell phones aren't likely to take the fastest road to this bright future. Innovation in the mobile
industry is full of zigzags and wrong turns, often because no single company completely controls the
device in your pocket. Carriers like Sprint and AT&T sell the phone to customers, provide billing and
run the phone network; device makers like Sony, Nokia and Samsung design the phone itself and
outsource the actual manufacturing to factories in China. Another challenge is that, unlike the
Internet, the phone world has no open and single set of protocols for programmers to build around.
Software written for one kind of phone won't work on all the others. The uncoordinated,
noncommercial programming that led to the quick evolution of the Internet hasn't taken hold in the
world of mobile phones.

Why Cell Phones are Replacing the Laptop

By Damon Brown

Even people who write reports and simple data entry will find themselves leaving their
notebook computers behind.

Ten years ago, the BlackBerry was known as a Wall Street icon or a geek organizer, far too
expensive and nerdy to be used by mere mortals.

Today, "BlackBerry" is the new "Kleenex," the generic name people give to any personal
digital assistant, or PDA. Treo and other companies are giving BlackBerry a run for its
money, while cute devices like the T-Mobile Sidekick have made owning a PDA-like cell
phone hip. When little portable computer phones get Paris Hilton endorsements, it's safe to
say that their bigger cousin, the laptop, is going the way of the dinosaur.

"In a physical sense, there are many phones that now have QWERTY keyboards and scaled
down Intel processors," says Kurt Collins, business development manager at Photobucket,
an online publisher of visual digital content. "Many PDA phones come with software that
allows the user to not only check e-mail, but also read and write Microsoft Office
documents."

Cell phones and PCs now rank as the most important devices for American consumers under
40, outranking even the TV, according to a survey by Forrester Research. The way that
translates into the business market is that more and more consumer technologies are being
used by workers in the office and out in the field. Laptop sales are, by some estimates, on
schedule to outpace PC sales. But cell phones are already surpassing land-line phones in
such locations as Europe and certain states, such as North Dakota, according to regulators.
In mid-2006, the number of cellular connections in the world reached 2.5 billion, having just
climbed over the 2 billion mark a year ago, according to estimates from Wireless
Intelligence, a research venture that tracks the global market for mobile technology.

The sharp trajectory of growth for cell phones and the growing number of PC-like features
being incorporated into their design are fueling the theory that the cell phone is becoming
the new laptop. Here are the reasons why:

 It can e-mail. The most mundane cell phone -- the kind that comes free with a phone
plan -- has e-mail as a standard feature. It is usually carrying AOL and Yahoo!, but
 MSN's Hotmail can be accessed indirectly. The low-budget phones require multiple
number pad strokes to type individual letters, but several reasonably-priced phones
have QWERTY keyboards, the standard computer keyboard. Some brands offer
nearly full-sized keyboard attachments that connect to the phone.
 It can Web-browse. Every major cell service offers Web browsing for a few extra
dollars a month. Many sites, such as Google and MSN, format their pages for easy
cell phone reading. Cell phone companies also aggregate content, making it easy to
get the latest world, business or entertainment news on the phone.
 It is small. Traveling with electronics is cumbersome, especially for those who are
on-the-go all the time. At airports, laptops must be taken out of their bags, placed on
the security conveyor belt and gathered up on the other side of the gate. A cell
phone simply needs to be turned off at takeoff.
 It has Windows. Windows Mobile has now come into its own on portable devices.
It's getting to the point where all software -- Word, Excel, perhaps even PowerPoint
-- will be on your cell phone.
 It has Bluetooth capabilities. Also becoming a standard, Bluetooth allows your cell
phone to communicate with other phones and computers in a fast, efficient way.
Files can be transferred quickly between your computer and your cell, turning your
phone into a virtual memory stick.
 It is cheaper (for now). The biggest threat to the bulky laptop is price. A top-of-the-
line, fancy cell phone will cost you about $600, or one-fourth the cost of a top-of-
the-line, fancy laptop. Until the mythological $100 notebook is commonplace, cell
phones are the cheaper and more efficient road to take.