Good-bye, Laptop. Hello, Smart Phone.
Soon, your mobile wireless device will be able to do everything your laptop can do -- maybe more.
By Michael Doan, Senior Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
August 5, 2009
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Your next computer quite likely will be a phone. More and more executives and workers in the field are swapping their computers for the lighter Web surfing mobile devices as wireless connections speed up and prices come down.
“If you had to choose, it’s getting close to, ‘Take my laptop and not my iPhone,’” says futurist Paul Saffo.
Next generation smart phones will be more reliable and able to handle many more chores than they do today. New chips will speed processing, and new wireless technology coming next year will make the airwaves less crowded. Battery power will be less of a problem as handsets hold their charge longer. And security fears are easing as protection software becomes more reliable. For example, if a phone is lost or stolen, Sybase’s iAnywhere Mobile Office software can erase data from the phone remotely.
Businesses are finding dozens of uses for iPhones, BlackBerrys, Palm Pre’s and other smart phones once used mainly for games, calendars and tracking e-mail. You’ll soon be able to make PowerPoint presentations from your cell phone. Just point your phone to the wall -- no need to power up a laptop or use a projector. Executives can pull smart phones out at meetings to check sales data or review inventories. Before meeting with a client, salespeople can view client records on customer online software from Salesforce.com, SAP and others. TV service technicians can see what was done on the last visit to a home. Building contractors can look up changes in design. "And nobody has to return to the office at the end of the day to file a report," says Jeff Orr, senior analyst at ABI Research.
New smart phone applications are catching on fast. With an iPhone, businesses can track FedEx shipments, scan documents, view spreadsheets, convert text to speech, record billable hours and approve travel requests. Another ubiquitous mobile device -- BlackBerry -- now has a credit card processor, a voice dictation recorder, a call time tracker to bill customers, an expense account writer and financial software.
Many firms let consumers download customized applications to smart phones. For example, customers make their own reservations online for hair salons and restaurants. Realty firms give home hunters pricing and location information for various neighborhoods. The insurance company Nationwide lets car drivers in accidents take photos and begin insurance claims. Pizza Hut patrons go online to pick toppings, and their pizzas are then prepared and delivered. Owners of Schlage locks can even open the front door from afar for service people.
Retailers are dipping their toes into m-commerce -- mobile online sales. Customers are starting to buy event tickets, travel packages and travel insurance over smart phones. Many firms offer tailored product catalogs that consumers can peruse on their devices. Mobile banking is quickly winning over consumers accustomed to wireless transactions. Some retailers offer coupons that can be redeemed without a printout. Others put up bar codes on posters, storefronts and other places to be scanned by cell phones, providing a written or voice message. And more businesses are making sure their stores appear on Google maps, which are especially popular with consumers on the move.
The sales outlook for smart phones is a bullish one. By 2011, nearly one-quarter of all mobile phones in use will be smart phones -- double today’s share. New devices coming out late this year or in early 2010 will have larger, 10-inch screens and better pictures for reading books and watching videos. Dell, AT&T and Apple are likely to offer wireless gadgets inspired by Amazon.com’s Kindle. And Google’s groundbreaking mobile phone software will be used by a lot of carriers, offering compatibility with competitors’ operating systems.
In four or five years, your cell phone will replace your office computer and phone. At work, you’ll connect a phone to a monitor and keyboard, using the same computer for work and home. It won’t carry any software because everything will all be accessed online. Office and personal calls will be channeled to the same device. Says Tom Goguen of Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry: “Businesspeople can present themselves as being in the office when they’re really at the golf course.”
Laura Kennedy contributed to this story.
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Reader Comments (5)
Posted by: ROC at 08/05/2009 06:45:11 PM
10-inch screen "smart phone"? That sounds more like a netbook with broadband. Not something to stick in a pocket or purse for making phone calls. The form factor demarcations will still exist. That is based on my use of both types of devices, and several in between such as the Nokia N800/N810 Internet Tablets (IT). The IT's have about the biggest usable screens I have seen which can be toted in a pocket or on a belt. And that is just not adequate for any serious computing needs requiring a keyboard and large screen (1280x800 as with my work Dell D630). Thumbboards (with their mindless perpetuation of the QWERTY layout instead of real ergonomic innovation with Dvorak) are too hard on the hands, and tiny screens are too hard on the eyes for all-day use when the PC is one's office. I see a continuing need for both, although I can make use of a netbook instead of something as big as the Dell for easier portability with the option to plug in an external monitor, keyboard and mouse to use for hours at a time (and tethering to a smart phone for over-the-air access which works well for me with EVDO). One size fits all is just not realistic given human ergonomics. RO
Posted by: Vic Robertson at 09/30/2009 10:45:03 PM
I am an accountant and could not imagine working on a 10" screen, so what other good to me is the smart phone? I work at home so I don't even have or need a cell phone at the present time.
Posted by: Grey at 12/09/2009 09:41:16 AM
I think you are way off on this one. It will be many years before we'll get to the point where we exchange our laptops for a phone. I can't imagine even trying to do my job on a 10" screen or smaller. Amazingly there's still some people in this world that don't own a cell phone, don't have a need for it and can tell you that a large majority of you out there don't need it. Its a crutch, its instant gratification, and now most of you are chained to it, even to the point of panicing if there's not a hotspot somewhere. Amazingly 50 years ago it didn't require you to have a cell phone to operate your business. Maybe it's time to look back on those times and see what worked and what we can do better to improve our lives instead of being hooked up to a digital ball and chain.
Posted by: Bill at 12/10/2009 06:54:33 PM
I don't think you know what you're talking about. A ten inch screen is still too small to do real work and doesn't fit in your pocket anyway. Smart phones already have poor battery life, there would have to be significant breakthroughs before one could stand in for a projector. Also any kind of data entry is already difficult on a phone, a small phone is never going to replace my mouse and keyboard.
Posted by: anono at 12/26/2009 07:38:53 PM
I use my smartphone in the manner described in the article. It is my modem and connects to my laptop so that I can have a larger screen and regular keyboard. It is the way of the future and is extremely addictive. I can work from any location that I have cell phone access. If I am grocery shopping and I get a call requesting information on a file I am working on, I can access my files on-line and can answer any specific questions in less than a minute. This is not science fiction, but much more efficient and cost-effective way of working. It is worth trying.