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Why do you think mobile phones and tablets have overtaken laptops ?
- Thread starter max2
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Mobility. Which implies ease of access and ubiquity.
Or to put it in practical terms, when something is easy to take with you anywhere, you tend to take it with you everywhere.
Or to put it in practical terms, when something is easy to take with you anywhere, you tend to take it with you everywhere.
The near ubiquity of cellular networks provides always-on connectivity.
Also, have you ever tried to take a photo with your notebook computer? Check messages while you wait in line? Then shove it into a pocket when you're done? And keep using all day long without recharging?
Also, have you ever tried to take a photo with your notebook computer? Check messages while you wait in line? Then shove it into a pocket when you're done? And keep using all day long without recharging?
The same reasons laptops have overtaken desktops. Here's my two reasons why mobile phones (they shouldn't even be called that anymore) have taken over.
1. People want to do their basic computing tasks on the go instead of being tied to a desk. A laptop is still too big just to walk around with while using.
2. Most people who use a computer do very basic tasks such as browsing the web, social media, etc.
Why haven't desktops been killed off completely? Niche uses such as gaming. Why haven't phones totally killed off laptops? While phones have the processing power to do more advanced tasks the lack of a larger screen and input devices makes it more difficult for the user. Sometimes it's just easier to do it with a full size computer.
1. People want to do their basic computing tasks on the go instead of being tied to a desk. A laptop is still too big just to walk around with while using.
2. Most people who use a computer do very basic tasks such as browsing the web, social media, etc.
Why haven't desktops been killed off completely? Niche uses such as gaming. Why haven't phones totally killed off laptops? While phones have the processing power to do more advanced tasks the lack of a larger screen and input devices makes it more difficult for the user. Sometimes it's just easier to do it with a full size computer.
The main thing I would like from a "full size computer" is a full size screen. Some things are just ridiculously complex on tiny screens: software development, CAD, spreadsheets bigger than a 3x2 grid, and so on.
I'd also like an actual full-travel keyboard in a lot of those cases, not an on-screen keyboad, and not a cheesy "portfolio" keyboard.
I don't need the electronics to be full size, just the screen and keyboard. Put all the actual computing electronics into a little box with a video port and USB port on it, and it would be fine. Something the size of a USB hub would be great.
I'll bring my own USB trackball.
Maybe one day we will have phones that project an image in front of us like a monitor out of thin air. Then all you would need is a keyboard. The actual electronics are already small. The circuitry in the new M1 Macs could almost fit inside of an iPhone. I can do small tasks like emails with my phone but when it comes to even slightly more complicated stuff like filling out an Excel spreadsheet I prefer my Mac.
Absolutely.
The ergonomics of notebook computers are abysmal. Keyboard/trackpad/mouse at the wrong height, tiny screen at the wrong height, poor speakers.
Yes, I own an ultrabook (a Windows unit) and I won't use it for more than a couple hours per day unless it is plugged into a full-size monitor, keyboard, and other input device.
In a few years, quite a few computers might end up being "thin clients" again, the PC equivalent of a Roku Streaming Stick or 3rd generation Apple TV.
I've already tried GeForce NOW on a ghetto $180 Windows PC. My Internet connection is entry-level so Nvidia recommended me to stick with 1280x720p resolution. But for kicks, I tried 1920x1080p and FPS was less than 30fps, all of it network bound. Still Metro Exodus was viewable.
In the future, I'm guessing that the scales will tip heavily to high-speed network connectivity and less to local hardware specs.
I don't think I'll buy another notebook. iPads can do everything I want on the go and at home I'll always have a desktop computer of some sort for when I really want to sit down and do computer stuff.
I find tablets and phones absolutely useless for anything but phone calls, tet messaging, and checking email. YMMV
Because they were never good on the low-end side of the market to begin with. Was easy enough to disrupt once you got smartphones in people's hands who before then were already efficient at tapping out texts on their flip phones.
And yet for the vast majority of people on this planet, it's their primary device.
There are Bedouins riding camels in the desert outside of Jerusalem. They all have cellphones. They did 10-20 years ago.
The landscape maintenance staff at my complex all have cellphones. Same with the folks who work in hospitality, service industries, trades: restaurant busboys, cooks, hotel housekeepers, school janitors, plumbers, electricians, etc.
There are far more people on this planet who will reach for their cellphone first.
This is something that every single sci-fi movie set in the future and made twenty years ago got wrong.
Hell, back in the early Nineties, a landline telephone line cost hundreds of dollars in Europe. I'm not talking backwater former Soviet-bloc countries, I'm talking about G-14 nations.
For emerging nations, the cellphone dominance is even bigger. Take for example the island nation of Indonesia (4th largest population in this world). They erected cellular towers; that's the consumer network. It's too many islands for twisted pair or coaxial copper wire to every residence.
Even here in the USA, something like >90% of telecom companies' capital infrastructure is in the subscriber loop ("the last mile").
But most technologists can't see the forest for the trees.
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Agreed.
For any sort of serious writing, you need a proper keyboard, `9and, indeed , screen) and personally, I loathe both tablets and mobile phones.
They are fine for consumption of content, a lot less good for content creation.
To the OP, two things come to mind by way of answer to your question: Convenience, and possibly generational.
The downside to that - constant use of mobile phones - is permanent availability, being on-call always and a further erosion of the boundaries between the worlds of the public/professional and the personal/private.
There is a reason I have two monitors on my work desk.
Still, I wouldn't mind a dock that I could slot my phone/tablet into and have my two monitors when needed.