The Laptop – being the mobile PC solution, and the Smartphone, both portable devices are indispensable tools of general business productivity. According to a recent consumer survey, 81% of executives globally, rely on these tools (Friedman and Hoffman 2008). However, a research on the rate of usability by country shows that preference for PCs as a means of surfing the internet in developed markets like the U.S. and Canada, is growing stronger compared to the cell phones (Ipsos 2006). Although, the research did raise the possibility of the cell phone overtaking the PC market in the future, the
technological gap between these two devices implies the contrary. Proponents of the cell phone’s potential to succeed the laptop, argue in favour of its offering of the basic functionalities sought by consumers such as internet browsing, watching videos and basic connectivity tools like e-mail or chat. In addition, they criticize Laptops as being deficient in meeting consumers’ expectations of mobility, mainly due to its size and short battery life while praising smartphones on the other hand, for addressing these needs.
The pace of innovations in mobile technologies carries a promising future for the smartphones, however, laptops are also undergoing substantial innovations that software developers utilize in driving higher market demand for latest technologies. This is clearly highlighted by the development of external storage from floppy disks to CD ROM, DVD and BLURAY and the major software upgrades accompanying such storage mediums.
More innovations are taking place. Although, it is a fact that companies like Google, Dell and Apple are making extensive foray into the smartphone market; Google with its Android platform, Dell with the Mini 3, and Apple investing continuously in augmenting its iPhone. However, this is not enough to conclude that the days of Laptops are soon to be over.
For instance, Apple’s latest revelation, the iPad, a small powerful handheld computer that offers the benefit of flexibility and portability among other things, is a reflection of the company’s belief in the longevity of the Laptop market, a notion that sees Buyya et’al (2008) ranking computing as the 5th utility after such essentials as gas, water, electricity, and telephony. The demand for PCs in developing markets such as India rose by 5.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 (Business Standard Feb 17, 2010). In Brazil, the market is anticipated to grow by 12% over the 2009-2013 periods.
Another threat to smartphones would be user privacy; the reliance on wireless netwroks makes smartphones more vulnerable to connection interceptions, unlike the more reliable cable connections used by most business and household users. In addition, global positioning service that allows usage even in the remotest parts of the earth, which is one of the main advantages for smartphones, can be easily abused by individuals and organizations to track users. In fact, a move has already been initiated by the US government to this end, claiming that such records would be utilized in fighting terrorism (Pearson & Milford 2010).
The vision of the Smartphone replacing the PC might only be possible through the merging of the technological advancement and user practicality of PCs with the mobility of smartphones, resulting in a hybrid device similar to Apple’s iPad.
It is difficult to separate between the laptop and the smartphone; after all, the smartphone is one variety of PC, just like desktop and laptop, yet with GSM capabilities a feature which many laptops nowadays have.
Useful Links
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/indian-pc-market-grows-52-in-q2/71920/on
http://www.ipsosna.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?&id=3049
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12 comments:
Isimi...Good argument you made, the smart phone and other mini electronic device, might be very appealing, the understanding is that its more convenient to work from phones and likes but I think we must be careful not to loose focus of the advantage of the laptop, its eventually going to be a case of volume versus convenience as the laptop still offers the convenience of volume of work done compared to the smart phones. I also believe that the case for convenience is going to be narrowed down to degree of convenience; as a laptop would always come in handy on many cases, if we had assessment of the desktop and the smart phone and we ask if there’s a possibility to replace the desktop with the smartphone, i’ll say definitely cos, the lingering inconveniencies of using a smart phone cannot be compared to the enormous drawback of a desk top.
The world evolves very fast you know, I strongly believe that the smartphones are just like the ATMs,when the first came out in the early 1920s,the really were not needed, they came as another innovation but their need finally came decades later and we see the seeming indispensability of the ATM till today. However, the laptops are barely settling into use and we now have the smartphones, i strongly believe that there’s a sixty year window on global proliferation of any product or technology, take for instance, the desktop if you look closely took almost 60years to go round the world and when I say round I mean Africa, if you have your facts right, you’ll see that Africa is still behind in the computer drive. Therefore, I believe that for the laptop to be replaced by the smartphone, we would need to exhaust the arguments obtainable within the confines of relevance and market adaptability...meaning that how relevant or what is the degree of relevance of the smart phone to the average life or productive life of an economy, compare it with the degree of relevance of the laptop and you'll see the irreplacablilty of the laptop in decades to come.
That’s not to say the smart phones wont sell but I mean look closely, in product design, its believed that when a product becomes the object of value in any society, it gives the proponents of that product or service the advantage whereby the can leverage on their value monopoly to introduce variation in such a market. That’s the issue here with the smart phone. In the years before the recession, the average liquidity of most customers grew and this was seen I believe by the technology vendors as an opportunity to increase ROI(Return On Investment) so the came up with the smart phones.
Anyway this argument is more complex than the simple idea of smart phones convenience compared with the laptop on the other hand. I believe the current global financials…. coming in would make allot of consumers reassess the issue of relevance and the battle between smart phones and laptop would eventually be based on convenience and volume. Thank you.
Godwin igonoh
Product design and Service consultant
Ehelp Networks Ltd
Lagos,Nigeria.
godwinihs@yagoo.com,godwin@ehelpnigeria.com
Technology is updating almost every single day. Decreasing size of IT devices is one of new technologies. For example, with nano technology, Intel now can produce faster CPU chips for computers with smaller sizes. In addition, mobility is also a trend in both working and entertaining in the modern life. Therefore, in the near future, people can produce smartphones with computer speed and functions, in that case will you think smartphones will replace laptops?
I do not think even with computer speed, mobile phones can replace computers. I have a blackberry, with great processing speed and one of the most comfortable typing keyboards on mobile and a word processing software, but it will be ludicrous for me to type a course work with it. Apart from being uncomfortable it will take forever, which is waste of time and productivity.....
i personally dnt see mobile phones taking the place of a laptop....its the virtual pc i see taking over the laptop...because size still matters and portability is also an issue virtual pcs will sort both issues out
Very good points been raised out there,
I was wondering if there is any academic debates around this topic?
Husni
It is true that mobile technologies are developing very quickly and I would agree than in the short future we'll have mobile phones as powerful as today's laptops, but we shouldn't forget that laptops are developing as well as so are the needs of the users.. a PC that was very powerful 3 years ago cannot run the basic user applications nowadays.. in my opinion, PC will remain to be the technological leader, mobile phones will always follow
Hi Husni.. Unfortunately, the literature is pretty scarce in this topic.. most of the limited scholars argue in favor of the mobile phone replacing PC in the future, basing their views on the legendary growth in mobile phone penetration across the world and the current usage patterns of mobile internet (Stone 2004). In addition, many refer to the technological advancements throughout the mobile phone history in predicting an end of the PC era in favor of mobile phones (Conti 2008).
Most investigations are quantitative in its nature, and I admit that looking at figures such as PEW Research highlighting that 32% of Americans access internet through their mobiles sound promising (PEW 2009), however, I believe that further qualitative studies are needed to understand the nature of this usage as well as its limitations.
In my opinion, the future of PC will be the marriage of laptop and smartphone, resulting in a hybrid product that enjoys the convenience of laptops and the mobility of smartphones.. the question of whether to call it a "smaller laptop" or a "bigger smartphone" would be a personal preference.
References:
Stone, B. (2004) Your Next Computer, Newsweek 143 (23)
Conti, J. (2008) What will mobile phones be like in 2020?, Journal of Engineering & Technology 23
PEW Internet Research (2009) Mobile Internet Usage in 2009, online from: http://www.pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2009/Mobile-internet-use.aspx [24 Feb 2010]
my opinion about mobile phones vs laptops is that the mobile phone can never take the place of the laptop, this is mainly bcos of the fact that, as much as mobile phone manufacturers have tried to build these phone to function like the laptop, these mobile devices still have little issues like freezing and memory issues.the laptop on the other hand keeps getting better and better as well as more portable.i believe than in the nearest future we will have laptops that can fit into our pockets and can hook up directly to the internet.
I agree with you. What leads market decisions even in the IT industry is the critical question- what do consumers want? Apple's recent launch shows that organisations have not lost touch with the market. Companies have been on track in the last 2-3 years, addressing the issue of portability of the laptop; the focus at the moment is matching that with the all important element of efficiency that consumers are constantly clamouring for. The new iPad is one example of the many innovations that we are yet to see in this regard.
Again, It is unarguable that the mobile phone is more functional than the laptop. You have more advantage to multitask on your laptop, than the mobile phone no doubt.
I believe mobile phones will always remain the alternative that they are.
i dont think mobile phones would replace the PC een though the mobile phone is more convenient to carry around. i personally wouldnt want to read a whole journal for example on my phone because the words would be so tiny and it would take like forever but its much more comfortable on the PC. it all runs down to the fact taht may people are thinking of convenience rather than function, yes it is convienient to carry my phone around easily but is it convienient to read a whole text book in it i dont think so? no matter what happens i still think the mobile phone cannot take the place of the P.C.
Nice and sound argument but I wonder what twist "iPad" would bring to the argument. Inasmuch as smartphone brings about convergence of telephony and computing demands, I believe there still need to be a clear distinction and the "iPad" after its release in April would raise more questions and highlight the need to allow telephony be telephony and infuse all the rest with computing!
true the smartphones re getting more capabilities, but it might take a veeerrry long time before young people drop laptops almost completely[I can assure you(90%) they wont drop it completely]. It just won't happen for a while...but who knows, the way changes happen...
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