In this article on GigaOm there’s an interesting question: will smartphones ever really replace laptops and/or computers? The answer to that is two-fold: yes and no. It will all come down to two things: screen size and ways of input.
Chatting, emailing or reading rss feeds is something you can do on smartphones that most people do on computers. You don’t need a large screen because it’s mostly just text. But for some actions, having a larger display is just a better fit. When retouching photos, doing web designing or having two applications sitting next to each other you want to have a large pallet to keep a good overview. Watching Youtube videos is not a problem, but viewing movies or series is more enjoyable on a bigger screen. Even the 3.5 inch display of the iPhone will not do in most instances. And even if smartphones like this Nokia concept will become a reality, the screen size will not suffice. And using bigger screens brings bigger bulk which leads to less portability.
For chatting, twittering and emailing a qwerty keyboard of a smartphone is good enough. Messages are usually just a few sentences. But imagine typing an entire blogpost or 1000 word article on a smartphone. Having a full size keyboard is a much better option then. Retouching photos is easier with a computer mouse than with say the trackball of a Blackberry Bold.
There is of course no telling what the future will bring. Innovations like virtual keyboards, beamers inside phones and touch technology can bring solutions to the above mentioned problems. And it’s true that today’s smartphones have already become do-it-all devices, replacing mp3 and GPS devices and sometimes even digital cameras. They are just not full time computer replacements yet.
