I had an interesting video chat with James this morning and he’ll likely be blogging about the main topic in the near future. I don’t want to steal his thunder so I won’t even delve into the details of the conversation, but obviously it had to do with mobile technology; in particular: multiple devices and multiple client apps that hit at cloud or server data. That begs the question: how many mobile devices are too many?
At one point, I was switching between no less than five or six devices on a daily basis between notebooks and phones. Over time, through no conscious effort on my part, I’ve slowly moved to a less-complicated environment. My MacBook Pro is my home "desktop" that gets used in the home office, while my Q1UP and iPhone basically travel with me everywhere I go. Various other notebooks, phones and Tablet PCs are relegated to the closet for now.
While my recent web-based challenge has actually made it easier to use more devices, not everyone wants to use a browser for everything. And here’s where more devices, especially across multiple platforms, gets interesting. You’ll likely hear more from James on this topic, but not every client works with server data in the same way and that can create data integrity issues. I’m especially thinking of Entourage and Outlook with Exchange, POP and IMAP support (there, I tipped my hand on the conversation). In any case, as much as I love to use many devices, I’m leaning towards the current situation I have: one fixed notebook / desktop replacement, one very mobile computer and one phone. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll play with and review any and every mobile device that comes along. I just find the daily experience much more satisfying now that I’ve simplified.
Have you bounced back and forth between more or fewer devices and if so, why?
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