Long Live the PC!

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176793/Dell_Smartphones_will_never_kill_the_PC' target='_blank'>http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...ver_kill_the_PC</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Dell said each user will have many devices, each geared for a specific task. "Some are better for carrying with you. Others are for consuming content, others are better for creating content." This runs counter to the idea that a smartphone or other mobile device will eventually become the multi-function computer of choice for work, communication, social networking and entertainment."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1273858955.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Despite what some CEO at a major computer manufacturer might say, I still hold firm in my belief that the smartphone will replace most of the functions of a PC for consumers.&nbsp; Sure, an iPhone or Nexus One cannot effectively help you do major video edits, or crunch large spreadsheets, but it allows people to consume with a very light amount of work.&nbsp; I am of the opinion that most people are happy just snapping and sharing photos, twittering their lives or looking up the price of a concert ticket.&nbsp; And of those things, I do not think a full fledged PC is necessary.&nbsp; I say this while admitting that I could never live like that.&nbsp; Needing to work with spreadsheets, code and TPS reports, I still have a workstation with multiple monitors that they will have to pry from my cold, dead hands.&nbsp; I think that Michael Dell does have one point though.&nbsp; Things do seem to be shifting towards specialized devices, each providing its own interface for information in the cloud.&nbsp; I just wonder what impact this will have on the people who do not have a persistent Internet connection.</p>

[David Tucker]

Maybe, and I stress MAYBE, many people could live with simply a tablet such as the iPad. I don't know many people though that use computers that would be happy with that solution. I find it exceedingly unlikely, however, that most people would be fine with no computer at all and just get by on their phone. The display just isn't conducive to...most anything really. Its great when I'm out and about but I wouldn't want that to be the only way to consume media.

[Bob Christensen]

Intel's CEO reported just a few days ago that the PC market crossed the one million mark--one million PCs sold per day. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20004677-64.html)

Doesn't sound like a trend that tablets or smartphones are going to slow down much.

[Hooch Tan]

My fingers are in my ears and I'm ignoring what you all are saying! La la la! I still think that the average consumer could be satisfied with a smartphone. Maybe not now, but perhaps in a year or two. If all they need is light web browsing and communications, I think the same thing that applies to netbooks could eventually apply to smartphones. I'll grant that the small screen is painful (I never browse on my phone unless I absolutely have to) so maybe something that could expand the screen would be needed, but a smartphone is rapidly approaching the same computing power as a netbook.

[David Tucker]

I think you really underestimate how much people enjoy browsing the web on a slightly larger screen than a smartphone ;)

[Hooch Tan]

I think you really underestimate how much people enjoy browsing the web on a slightly larger screen than a smartphone ;)

I can't stand it myself, but if more websites start offering mobile websites, that might, /MIGHT/ change. I hope that if companies do go this route, they will opt for truly mobile websites, instead of iPhone apps. I'd much prefer something that is universal in access.

[Jason Dunn]

I've been seeing concepts for the "dock your smartphone in this special dock and use it as a full PC because it's really the brain and here's your big monitor and keyboard" thing for almost a decade now. And guess what...they're still just concepts. Until we have a MASSIVE breakthrough in battery power (or in power savings), these little devices just won't have the CPU power do handle desktop tasks and multi-tasking.

[Jason Dunn]

I can't stand it myself, but if more websites start offering mobile websites...

Unfortunately, the success of the iPhone and it's desktop-class browser has actually HURT the mobile Web site concept more than helped it. :(

[Hooch Tan]

Unfortunately, the success of the iPhone and it's desktop-class browser has actually HURT the mobile Web site concept more than helped it. :(

Well, in one way, I can kind of see the appeal. Having to develop only a single website can be very tempting, despite the issues with web browsing on such a tiny screen. All that scrolling and zooming makes me dizzy.

[Sven Johannsen]

these little devices just won't have the CPU power do handle desktop tasks and multi-tasking.
Haven't you heard? People don't really need multi-tasking. What they need is the consolidation of social networking.

[Jason Dunn]

Haven't you heard? People don't really need multi-tasking. What they need is the consolidation of social networking.

Har har har. :D Multi-tasking when you have a screen so small you can only see one app at a time is mostly a matter of perception; when you're using a desktop-class monitor (or even an iPad-sized screen), you have the expectation of true multi-tasking and seeing both windows open at the same time.

[David Tucker]

Har har har. :D Multi-tasking when you have a screen so small you can only see one app at a time is mostly a matter of perception; when you're using a desktop-class monitor (or even an iPad-sized screen), you have the expectation of true multi-tasking and seeing both windows open at the same time.

That's a rather limited view of what multi-tasking allows a computing device to do.

[Jason Dunn]

That's a rather limited view of what multi-tasking allows a computing device to do.

Perhaps - but I think multi-tasking is highly overrated if the user experience of application state resume is really great. There are some areas where multitasking needs to really work - GPS apps staying open to give you directions when you get a phone call or when you want to check your email; a music app staying playing while you browse the Web. But once you get beyond those core scenarios - of which I'd guess there are maybe five or so - multi-tasking doesn't mean much.

Application state restore - meaning being able to get your application back exactly the way you had it before - is super important. Apple does this quite well. On my iPod Touch, let's say that I'm typing an email, and I need to look something up on the Web; I press the home key, start up Safari, find what I need, press the home key, press the email icon, and boom, I'm staring at my in-progress email again. There was no multitasking involved there; only app state restore. But from an end-user perspective, I didn't notice - and that's really what matters.

[Hooch Tan]

Application state restore - meaning being able to get your application back exactly the way you had it before - is super important. Apple does this quite well. On my iPod Touch, let's say that I'm typing an email, and I need to look something up on the Web; I press the home key, start up Safari, find what I need, press the home key, press the email icon, and boom, I'm staring at my in-progress email again. There was no multitasking involved there; only app state restore. But from an end-user perspective, I didn't notice - and that's really what matters.

This is why I like a multi-monitor environment! I find that psychologically, flipping windows still causes a break in my train of thought. Looking from left to right, or more daringly, right to left, lets me keep track of what I need to do much more easily.

However, I find that with multi-tasking, from a computer perspective, I find what I do with my phone the most where it could make the most use is web browsing. Loading pages can be excruciatingly slow so I often have multiple tabs loading while I digest another. It takes me back to the days of dial-up! Yes, I consider background tabs as "multi-tasking."

[Jason Dunn]

This is why I like a multi-monitor environment! I find that psychologically, flipping windows still causes a break in my train of thought. Looking from left to right, or more daringly, right to left, lets me keep track of what I need to do much more easily.

Agreed. I definitely like having multiple monitors, or a really big single monitor - my 27" is so high res (2560 x 1440) that I can have multiple apps open at the same time. On a tiny-screen device though, where you'd only ever want to see one app on the screen at the same time, whether the other app is really running in the background or not is mostly irrelevant (with the exceptions I stated previously).

However, I find that with multi-tasking, from a computer perspective, I find what I do with my phone the most where it could make the most use is web browsing. Loading pages can be excruciatingly slow so I often have multiple tabs loading while I digest another. It takes me back to the days of dial-up! Yes, I consider background tabs as "multi-tasking."

Every smartphone on the market today that I can think of supports tabbed browsing, so that's not much of an issue, thankfully. :)

[David Tucker]

Perhaps - but I think multi-tasking is highly overrated if the user experience of application state resume is really great. There are some areas where multitasking needs to really work - GPS apps staying open to give you directions when you get a phone call or when you want to check your email; a music app staying playing while you browse the Web. But once you get beyond those core scenarios - of which I'd guess there are maybe five or so - multi-tasking doesn't mean much.

Application state restore - meaning being able to get your application back exactly the way you had it before - is super important. Apple does this quite well. On my iPod Touch, let's say that I'm typing an email, and I need to look something up on the Web; I press the home key, start up Safari, find what I need, press the home key, press the email icon, and boom, I'm staring at my in-progress email again. There was no multitasking involved there; only app state restore. But from an end-user perspective, I didn't notice - and that's really what matters.

There are some applications that this is a technical impossibility though. One example of why the iPhone was never going to work for me is that I am a heavy user of IRC still and without multitasking, IRC won't work unless its always in the foreground. While IRC is certainly not a very commonly used application anymore, its but one example.

If you wanted to listen to music and use GPS while you run, you need multitasking. If you want your web browser to download a large file you might not want to just sit there with the browser up, waiting. What if you had an application that downloaded podcasts in the background so you always had the most up to date 'casts? I have an application on my phone called Locale that monitors it to activate or deactivate different profiles depending on the situations I've put in. Anything from event based or time based to location based. There's a million reasons you would want multi-tasking.

Yes, there are times when saving state is as reasonable as multi-tasking (or even more reasonable). If the application literally doesn't need to do anything but wait for you to come back to it, then no multitasking is needed and I think the iPhone does a good job with handling that. Its something that applications should probably have been doing for a while and I think it was a smart innovation. However, one good feature doesn't cancel out another and the fact that Apple has enabled multitasking for some of their own applications shows they realize that some applications DO need it. Not all of them, no. But many still do.

My multitasking needs on a phone are different than on a desktop. I do slightly different tasks on them. But I still

[David Tucker]

This is why I like a multi-monitor environment!

I'm trying to picture a multi-monitor phone set up :D