Moving toward the lowest common denominator
Although my boomer generation may be approaching the time where we move off the stage, we've still got a good 25+ years left, and at least most of us early boomers will not give up our notebooks and move to tablets/smartphones exclusively for several good reasons:
1. Intelligence- the tablet & smartphone crowd seem to want a device that they can work without thinking anything through, for the simple purposes of web access and social networking, primarily. I want a device that actually allows me to do some work, not just be entertained!
2. Privacy- I keep financial records, budet and estimated tax spreadsheets, encrypted copies of tax returns, etc., on my laptop. I want these stored on my hard drive, and backed up to onsite and offsite storage media, NOT stored in the cloud, where they might be hacked.
3. Reliability- including accesibility (what if you don't have a good 3/4G or Wi-fi connection, the cloud server goes down, the cloud company goes out of business, etc.)
4. Privacy Part 2- I, and I believe many like me, don't WANT to be accessible 24/7. When I'm with family and friends, or jhust by myself doing some fun activity or having quiet time, I don't WANT people not physically present horning in on me, and have "virtual people" diverting my attention from people who are actually physically present. If it's not urgent, leave an e-mail. If it is urgent, give me an old-fashioned phone call on my "dumb phone"! If YOU think it's urgent, and I haven't given you my cell number, chances are that I don't think it'd be urgent.
5. Size matters- but in this case, small is better, especially being male & straight. Until manpurses become accepted wear for hetero males, I appreciate a small phone I can put in a pants pocket without making a huge bulge, and not having to wear a belt holster for my device.
6. A caveat- were I to become involved in an activity- day trading, for an example- where I needed ready access to the Internet, I would, indeed, appreciate having a smartphone that allowed me to contiunue my ongoing online activity without being tethered to my office, or having to carry around something as bulky as even a MacBook Air or a Windows ultrabook. In this case, I would go to a smartphone, and appreciate it. But until I get involved in something that involves the need for ready web access anywhere, I'll stick with a thin laptop and a dumb phone.
