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Originally Posted by ballistic
Are desktops and laptops becoming less relevant as our handheld devices become our primary communications and computing devices?
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Nope, in fact they're all evolving the same direction.
I've said many times, many years ago, that the computers of "today" (circa early to mid-90's)
WILL go away, and the OS you normally run will just be run over the network, or you'll run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same hardware, etc. Computers are nothing more than "data terminals", with a bit more brains. That's all they should be. Just let me get to my data.
If I'm asking for my data on a handheld, display it appropriately. If I'm asking for it on a desktop with a large screen and more input methods (keyboard, mouse, voice), give me more capabilities.
The Internet is your network, the network is your OS, and your device is simply a "window" to that environment. Nothing more need be included.
Also, this migration to "handhelds" is sure to backfire on the industry in a very real and financially-painful way. There are hundreds upon hundreds of companies who
WILL NOT adopt handhelds because of the enormous liability issues associated with them. Government, pharmaceutical, healthcare are the three big ones that immediately come to mind. How do you secure and track your assets? What about retention? How do you stop someone from "cloning" your handheld while its at home?
The solution, clearly, is to make the handheld nothing more than a "terminal" to the information stored elsewhere. Think Bladerunner here, and you'll get the idea. Priviledged information is stored remotely, non-priviledged is stored (or "cached", if you will) locally (mirrored remotely as well).
And guess what? You won't know (or care) where the information is stored, as long as you have immediate access to it when you need it. If your network (the Internet) is fast enough, and access to your data through that interface is just as fast and responsive as if it was local, what do you care?
This is where the future is going. Devices will begin to be "repurposable" upon demand. You'll see devices that connect together (literally) to add capabilities. A PDA connecting to a docking station is one example of this (though not a long-term solution, of course).
Being able to decouple a smartphone's phone component and switch in a GPS component or a thumbboard component instead of a touchscreen, will be key to the device's survival. If you're watching the industry closely, you'll see that convergence is dying and device "personality" is gaining in popularity. Click your "tablet" into a keyboard and now you've got a laptop.
This is the future. Who cares about "The Device". Its the data that matters. The device is simply a way to get to that data. Let it become whatever you need it to become, for the purposes of manipulating that data.