Weird. Not one, but two remarkably similar articles last week (one by Duncan Martell of Reuters, the other by Kevin Laws of VentureBlog), about how smartphones are poised to replace laptops. There is no doubt that some people will be able to successfully replace their laptop with a smartphone, but it’s going to be hard to drive them to complete extinction for one simple reason: getting work done on a smartphone is not fun. Sure, I can blog from my Treo 600, send and receive emails, and even write articles, but I will never, ever sit down and spend a day working on my phone. No matter how powerful a smartphone might be, it’ll never have a full-sized screen and keyboard (nor should it), and those are the two things I need most when it’s time to get some serious work done. Anticipating this, Kevin mentions that eventually you might be just be able to carry an external display and keyboard around with you, but how is this any easier than simply carrying around an ultralight laptop? Not very.
Read – Reuters – Smartphones may someday threaten laptops
Read – VentureBlog – The End of the Laptop? [Thanks, Doug]
