On a recent MacBreak Weekly podcast episode, Leo Laporte echoed what I’ve been thinking for a longtime. The laptop computer as we know it, is a walking dead man. It’s headed for obsolescence. People want their stuff on all of their devices and it doesn’t matter what screen they are using at the time.
While I was working for Gateway computers in the early aughts I had the privilege of questioning our R&D engineers on where they thought the computer industry was headed. Even as far back as the early 2000’s, before the iPhone or Android even existed, they all told me the same thing. The laptop computer was dead. They all felt it was only a matter of time before the convenience of the smart phone supplanted it. I still remember one of my favorite engineers wowing me with his Palm Treo as he made his point. I can only imagine what he must’ve thought when he later saw the coming of the iPhone.
But it’s not just the influence of those engineers which made me believe that laptops are a relic of a time gone by. I’ve witnessed professionals from various financial and business disciplines use their phones more than their laptops through much of the workday. And it’s not really by choice. When you’re traveling, sitting in a conference room, or get caught up in a hallway discussion, the best computer is the one that’s with you. And for managers working in a manufacturing plant setting, it’s even worse. Laptops get used only for a little bit at the beginning and end of the workday.
As Leo put it “People want their stuff on all of their devices”. A laptop computer is basically a brain connected to a keyboard and screen. But do they need to be fused together like Siamese twins? Apple’s phone processors are already more powerful than many laptop computers. Why can’t this “brain” hook up to whatever screen you’re using? Keyboards are cheap and easy to add. It’s not hard to imagine the world which those Gateway engineers envisioned almost 20 years ago. A world where our phones are our main computers
But it’s not just the influence of those engineers which made me believe that laptops are a relic of a time gone by. I’ve witnessed professionals from various financial and business disciplines use their phones more than their laptops through much of the workday. And it’s not really by choice. When you’re traveling, sitting in a conference room, or get caught up in a hallway discussion, the best computer is the one that’s with you. And for managers working in a manufacturing plant setting, it’s even worse. Laptops get used only for a little bit at the beginning and end of the workday.
As Leo put it “People want their stuff on all of their devices”. A laptop computer is basically a brain connected to a keyboard and screen. But do they need to be fused together like Siamese twins? Apple’s phone processors are already more powerful than many laptop computers. Why can’t this “brain” hook up to whatever screen you’re using? Keyboards are cheap and easy to add. It’s not hard to imagine the world which those Gateway engineers envisioned almost 20 years ago. A world where our phones are our main computers
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