Can You Work For a Month Using Just Your Smartphone?
Smartphones are computers. There, I feel better having said that, and in a public forum, too. While some will disagree with that statement, the smartphone of today easily qualifies as a computer. The real question to ask: Is the smartphone a good enough computer on which to get work done? The folks at InfoWorld recently wondered that and one intrepid writer spent a whole month working with just an iPhone. Not one of those fancy new iPhone 3G S models either, he used a lowly (and now outdated) iPhone 3G.
Overall the iPhone 3G seemed to make for a pretty decent laptop replacement for the experiment:
The iPhone comes very close to being a laptop replacement for many basic business and field-service uses. Its file-handling limitations and lack of support for enterprise mail servers other than Exchange are the biggest reasons it can’t really replace a laptop. Some silly flaws like the calendar integration issues also get in the way.
I wonder how many times the author found himself close to tears trying to do something on the iPhone using that little onscreen keyboard? I think this was a good experiment; it brings to mind Kevin’s experiment to live solely in the cloud. Maybe we should talk Kevin into using just his Palm Pre for a month? Heck, his last experiment was 60 days, this should be a piece of cake. The Pre has a real keyboard, too, not one of those hinky virtual things.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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I’ve been using a Blackberry 8320 for the last year as a laptop replacement for typing papers, taking notes and browsing the web. I find the portability very nice, but the formating of .DOC files that need formatting is somewhat difficult with Documents to Go. This was my main “computer” unless I was at a desktop at school.
I’ve been reading these sorts of headlines for at least the last 5 years. It used to be “can a Pocket PC replace a laptop” and now it’s “can an iPhone replace a laptop”. The one thing they always have in common is that someone tries really hard but ultimately fails to do it.
Basically, I don’t think this is possible if you work in front of a computer all day. If you rarely or never use a computer for work (a sales rep for instance) you might find that a smartphone helps you but then it’s not really a laptop replacement if it’s not actually replacing a laptop.
I could if I wanted to. It’d be slightly annoying, but I would be able to do it.
Nope, no way.
Software development hurts without a lot of screen real estate, and you have to turn off autocomplete to get anything useful out of an ssh session. I had to restart one of our production servers once using only an iPod Touch and its ssh/safari, and it took close to 5 minutes to type in all of the commands.
The other half of my job involves integration with word and excel to a point where I’d again be slow with a small screen. A lot of our spreadsheets are slow even on a desktop, and I’d hate to wait for them to recalculate on a smartphone.
The final barrier with smartphones is that I rely on a multi-document view heavily. I need to be able to see my web browser, my ssh session, my email, and my editor (IDE) all at once on the screen, or rely heavily on visual memory and a lot of task switching.
If I mostly had to take notes and reply to eMail, it’d be more doable.
I used to use Palm Treo with Celio Redfly for over 6 weeks while i was doing business in China. No pro at all with simple Word/Speadsheet plus TV out. I believe it doesn’t qualify as using solely smartphone.
However, I will be trying to use my HTC Touch Pro2 plus BT folding keyboard this summer while I will be again around the UK this summer. From my past experience, things should be fine as long as I have TV-out and BT keyboard. Bear in mind that I view a lot of pics as well as spreadsheet editing. Big screen is def handy to me but I have no doubt most consumers can live with smartphone only.
Netbook yes, smartphone no way.
A smartphone or Iphone can not replace my laptop at all. They are convenient for fast communications of e-mails but a thumb input is NOT ever going to be adequate to replace a laptop. It does not matter if your are a sales rep or what type of user you are of a laptop; desktop OS and software needs a touch type keyboard to be functional.
What could replace a laptop is if finally a UMPC or MID were to make a modern either clamshell using something like the old Psion 5mx as a model or a more radical design like the Dragonfly foldable computer. So far not one UMPC or MIDS or any pocketable computer or smartphone has the proper keyboard to replace a laptop. I would love to buy a full PC UMPC with a touch type keyboard that is jacket size to replace my laptop but so far it is just a dream.
If I had a folding full size keyboard yes.
only if it has MS Money …
James, the new “desktop mode” in the Kindle DX web browser is capable of getting me into Google Reader. I’m starting to wonder how far I could get in my day with just the new Kindle DX…
By the way, people ask “How big is that new screen?” It’s the same size as the Kindle 2 “I thought you said it was bigger???” no, it’s the same size as the ENTIRE Kindle 2. :-)