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This is probably true for companies targeting casual users. Facebook and YouTube are great examples. But I can't see people switching to mobile for the bulk of

by jarrett 15y ago

This is probably true for companies targeting casual users. Facebook and YouTube are great examples. But I can't see people switching to mobile for the bulk of their serious, work-oriented computing unless the hardware experience drastically changes. I would never program on an iPhone or iPad if a computer were available. Nor would I want to do serious video editing, or CAD. I probably wouldn't even want to type a book on an iPad unless I had an external keyboard and mouse--and at that point, how different is it from a laptop? Granted, most of these use cases can't be done on the web today. But that may (or may not) change. And even now, there are professional tasks that I'd much prefer to do on a laptop or desktop than on a mobile device--for example, updating Basecamp to-dos. I also wonder whether this mobile vs web distinction will persist in the long run. Imagine a future where the most popular way to access Facebook is by clicking an icon on your iPad, which launches a Facebook mobile version in Safari or a very thin native app built around UIWebView. Is this mobile, or is this the web? At that point, I think the distinction becomes meaningless.

InclinedPlane 15y ago
Few people who use computers for work require the same degree of capability as programmers do. For most office work there are huge reasons why the mobile paradigm makes a ton of sense. I firmly believe that in 10-20 years it will be the dominant form of business computer. That doesn't mean you can't use a mouse and keyboard as well. And that does make it similar to the form-factor of a laptop or a desktop but that misses the core advantages of tablet computers. The OS experience, the app. install and management experience, the portability advantages (tablets are vastly more portable than even a laptop), and the potential cost savings. Not to mention that it could easily be a different set of companies providing such systems in the future than the PC stalwarts of today (perhaps google, apple, samsung, and HTC instead of Microsoft, dell, and hp).
- jarrett 15y ago
  So in other words, mouse + keyboard + iOS/Android will become the dominant system for everyday office use, such as word processing and writings emails? I can believe that. As you said, the fundamental difference at that point between mobile and traditional computers is the OS. But if that's the case, then I have to question how relevant the distinction is from a developer's point of view. To cater to mouse + keyboard + iOS/Android users, we don't need to build native iOS apps. We can just as well build regular old web apps and ensure they work well for mouse + keyboard + iOS/Android. That's not very different from what we do today, except for the fact that we'd have to account for yet another set of screen sizes. Therefore, as far as serious/business/professional apps are concerned, I don't foresee a major paradigm shift. More like a pressure to learn some new web dev techniques, such as responsive design. Again, though, I don't claim this would hold true for consumer apps. Many of those will likely be used from an iPhone or an iPad without any external devices.
  - andrewflnr 15y ago
    What I think will be even cooler is tablet + keyboard + motion sensing field. If the gestures were designed right, you probably wouldn't even have to move far off the keyboard to get that nice, free-form, analog input. Now that I think about it, that would be pretty cool on my desktop, too.

by jarrett 15y ago

InclinedPlane 15y ago

Few people who use computers for work require the same degree of capability as programmers do. For most office work there are huge reasons why the mobile paradigm makes a ton of sense. I firmly believe that in 10-20 years it will be the dominant form of business computer. That doesn't mean you can't use a mouse and keyboard as well. And that does make it similar to the form-factor of a laptop or a desktop but that misses the core advantages of tablet computers. The OS experience, the app. install and management experience, the portability advantages (tablets are vastly more portable than even a laptop), and the potential cost savings. Not to mention that it could easily be a different set of companies providing such systems in the future than the PC stalwarts of today (perhaps google, apple, samsung, and HTC instead of Microsoft, dell, and hp).

jarrett 15y ago
So in other words, mouse + keyboard + iOS/Android will become the dominant system for everyday office use, such as word processing and writings emails? I can believe that. As you said, the fundamental difference at that point between mobile and traditional computers is the OS. But if that's the case, then I have to question how relevant the distinction is from a developer's point of view. To cater to mouse + keyboard + iOS/Android users, we don't need to build native iOS apps. We can just as well build regular old web apps and ensure they work well for mouse + keyboard + iOS/Android. That's not very different from what we do today, except for the fact that we'd have to account for yet another set of screen sizes. Therefore, as far as serious/business/professional apps are concerned, I don't foresee a major paradigm shift. More like a pressure to learn some new web dev techniques, such as responsive design. Again, though, I don't claim this would hold true for consumer apps. Many of those will likely be used from an iPhone or an iPad without any external devices.
- andrewflnr 15y ago
  What I think will be even cooler is tablet + keyboard + motion sensing field. If the gestures were designed right, you probably wouldn't even have to move far off the keyboard to get that nice, free-form, analog input. Now that I think about it, that would be pretty cool on my desktop, too.