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Laptop murdered... by Smartphones


prathapml

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Laptop murdered... by Smartphones

Today, from a business perspective, what is it that u can do with a laptop?

1. Make documents & presentations

2. E-mail your reports from the "field"

3. Browse the internet (for whatever reason you'd want to ascribe)

4. Play computer games to relieve the stress

5. Read books

6. Share files on an office network

7. Image/Movie editing

Smartphones today do all of this and MORE !!

These phones run an OS (which can be Symbian/WindowsMobile/Palm depending on which manufacturer you are looking at).

They can do all of the things a laptop can do (out-lined above).

Plus, they have the advantage of having cameras built-in, and by their nature, they are communication devices already, so they have always-on wireless access to voice & data calls, without even trying too hard! Combined with the advantage of being cheaper, smaller, and lighter, than a laptop, it makes for a deadly mix.

And the story doesn't end here. Smartphones are extensible, since they run a programmable Operating System. So you can assign it roles that would be unthinkable of, on laptops.

- Portable radio

- Portable Music Player

- TV/DVD/Jukebox infra-red remote

- view TV channels on-the-go!

- Closed Circuit TV cameras, or spy-cameras

- Calculator of the right size

- keeping notes and to-do lists

- recording voices or sounds

It can go all the way to the esoteric, for example, an Anti-Mosquito sound-wave maker, or Anti-dog, to drive away street dogs with ultra-sonic waves.

A smartphone today can run the entire gamut of tasks that twenty devices did for you, until yesterday. It facilitates your work-flow, keeps you in touch, entertains you, and protects you! Its the complete personal device that everyone expected the PC to become, someday. Instead, what you see today, is the rise of the mobile phone to displace the laptop and the PDA, and emerge to be the super-gadget that aims to simplify human life in the 21st century.

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well i consider there to be two types of laptops

1. ulra portable genraly not very powerfull but it still dose everything you can ecspect ecept for games

2. the rock-heavy laptop generaly verry heavey and only for games because of battery life

genraly from what iv heard a smartphone is not a very good cell phone

and the killer fact for smartphones NO KEBOARD if they came with one standerd and were COMFETABLE then maybe they would have a chance...

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Ah, the thrill of an argument ;)

First, a smartphone is as good a phone as any other non-OS mobile phone!

Second, If you need to type long documents, you probably wont do much of it on a laptop anyways. And okay.... lets agree that you DO want to type a lot, and lack of full-size keyboard is your only grudge, you can have a wireless bluetooth keyboard for smartphones:

Example 1:

enh_wireless_keyb_main.jpg

Example 2:

50.jpg

Example 3:

BT_Freedom.jpg

Example 4:

stkeyboardsmartphone.jpg

yay for phones :yes:

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Smartphones are great. But you can't compare them with laptops :no:

I myself am a big fan of the Nokia's Series 60 Smartphones and had also wrote an article about it long ago (posted here).

The biggest disadvantages of a smartphone over a laptop are -

1. the size of the screen is TOO small on a smartphone, you CANNOT make a document or presentation or even browse the net comfortably

2. The speed and memory. Now dont tell me you can work on Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Dreamweaver on a smartphone

3. The input interface lacks on a smartphone.... cluttered keypad ... or at the most pen input...? (although this problem maybe solved as you mentioned above, prathap, but the wireless keyboards don't come along with the phone for free... u have to buy them)

That said, I still don't say that Smartphones are useless. They are very handy gadgets... small yet powerful and provide limitless possibilities. The smartphones which are comparable to laptops maybe the Nokia Series 80 (Communicator) or the UIQ phones (Sony Erricson, Siemens, Motorola). They have fast processors (on the scale of mobile phones), enough RAM and storage memory and come with loads of pre-installed applications for office use.

But then, wouldn't it be better to buy a laptop instead, since the class of smartphones you are discussing (those comparable with laptops) are more expensive than a decent laptop!

Even better, I would go and buy a cheap smartphone (for my mobile phone, camera, bluetooth, radio, email and other small needs) and a decent laptop along with it.. ;)

Well, prathap, if your talking smartphones alone, then they're great, but comparing them with laptops would be like thinking too much in the future.

Edited by angadsingh007
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  • 2 weeks later...

I think that there are some good points and some bad points on the list. For the "common" tasks (basic browsing, e-mail) smartphones are alright.

However, I still think that laptops will always have a proper place in the market. I have fairly large hands, and I've used the foldable keyboards for my Palm a while back and I kept on missing the keys. Even after a month of use, I couldn't properly type... With the full size keyboard on my laptop (which I now actually prefer to a "real" keyboard) I can usually average about 60-80 wpm without trying too hard.

Also... watching movies on a smartphone? The screen is far too small and the quality of the video/sound that you're getting will undoubtably be worse than that of a laptop (which will most likely be worse than a comparable desktop).

I've done a number of lectures at my university, and I can say with complete confidence that no smartphone/pda could replace my laptop as my presentation tool of choice. Just as prathapml said, a laptop is a mobile PC, and that's exactly why I love it.

I think that ultimately we will see many more developments in the handheld market. The blending of a cellphone and a pda is something that is probably fairly appealing to many people, and the main hinderance right now is the price (such devices cost about half that of a good laptop here in Canada).

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  • 1 month later...

I know this topic is a bit old, but I feel the need to mention 3 interesting pieces of technology:

1) Rollable screens. A full-colour LCD screen that can be rolled up.

2) Fold-up keyboards. A full, thin keyboard that folds up into about 1/3 its size.

3) Micro-drives. Same as an ordinary HD but about 1/10 the size.

All of these do exist (but I think #1 is still pretty new and not very good yet). Imagine a laptop utilizing all of these... it could easily be about the size of an ordinary hard disk if it had a custom CPU and memory, possibly even without, especially if the power supply's transformer were external. Add a few buttons on the outside, possibly a small second screen, and you got one **** small laptop!

Of course, something this small probably wouldn't have speakers (maybe one small flat one like the two on a Nintendo DS), but a headphone port would do just fine in their place.

Edited by HyperHacker
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I still have a feeling that we'll still have a place for laptops in the market. There is only so much space on the screen of a PDA/Cellphone. Rollable Displays may help solve this, but they're still a long ways away.

If you look at hard drives, they've been the same size for years now, and yet we've simply made the excuse to keep the size and pack more storage space in there.

As for keyboards, as I said before, I have never found a full-sized foldable keyboard. For someone like me with big hands, the ultra-portable laptops and the current foldable keyboards are a nightmare. And to refute prathapml, I do most of my typing of letters, reports, and the like on my laptop. I actually prefer the feel of the keys now to a standard keyboard.

Just one more thing about making things smaller and thinner... the thinner something gets, the weaker it gets physically. Don't believe me? Take a piece of paper - see how easy it is to bend? Now take a 2x4... see how hard it is to bend? They're the same material (more or less), but the thickness makes the difference. People do abuse their equipment (think about everytime you shove your cellphone into your pocket, or throw it in your bag, and then put your textbooks on top of it...) I still get the jitters thinking about how thin the lids of Powerbooks are today (~0.2" ~ 0.5mm). I can just imagine one of those things bending or warping so easily... :unsure:

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  • 3 weeks later...

well of course laptop has advantages over ppc's/smarts but thats because they're bigger. compare the desktop to laptop u still have those differences..

yes the screen is small but u wouldn't want to carry 17" in your pocket right?

let me bring one important thing: when laptops first appeared it was only for business and they has sucky cpu's / grapics cars / ram / etc..

now how long has passed since laptops are out?

wait a little longer and u'll have the ability of laptops on your ppc's..

i currently have imate pda2 and when i bought it all my friends were like "ow man, we're definitely getting one". bc u know it has windows instead of symbian. when we're on the move i can connect to the internet and check which cinema is out there to watch. or check emails..

and since it has wi-fi I can have faster internet everywhere all mcdonalds/fridays/starbucks/gloria jeans/etc.. have wi-fi access. and the best thing is i can connect to a wi-fi when i'm no the road bc most ppl don't apply security to their wireless routers :D

my friends got imate jam's instead (smaller but no wi-fi)

so the everything is obvious. the ppcs are out for business ppl. soon it will be for gaming like psp..

1 downside is i cannot type sms as fast as i did on my nokia 7210.. i've to take out the pen.. but its ok i'll get used to it..

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  • 1 month later...

Smartphones... no way...

Honestly... who wants to type out a full on assignment or thesis on a smartphone... and viewing videos, gawd... tiny screen = less productivity

well thats MHO :)

Edited by undeadsoldier
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  • 1 month later...

I go with laptops all the way. For many many reasons (most of them all ready said). The smartphone can be stolen more easily than the lap top. Sure the laptop can still be stolen but there is a much less chance. Plus you cant use paint on a smart phone. (LOL)

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