Discussion on:

10 things to consider before going mobile-only

It does seem that one person will see that another has gone to all hand-held devices and think they can do the same. Or, a boss/industry leader did it and thinks all others can do the same. I think the smart idea is to keep the notebook or desktop for a while before moving over completely.

This is the first article or list that I have seen that covers most of the points as to why I believe the tablet & smart phone will not replace the portable or the desktop in the near future. They are good tools to use in the IT mix, but they are not yet the one tool that does it all. If there ever will be one!

My three things list of Achilles heels are lack of storage memory, connectivity (library, backup, printers and good cameras) and decent browsers (poor mobile browsers and incompatibility with all the sites in my favorites).
In fact the smart-phones and tablets are designed to go with a home base computer for all these and more functions. We are collecting our lives in electronic form. I can't imagine using 4G or LTE and the Cloud for all this - the cost alone ... !! WiFi and a real computer plus backup is the only sensible route, for now anyway.

I note that a number of things are mentioned as achilles heels of tablets (and also mobile phones) though one obvious one keeps on getting overlooked: powering them! It seems that with the increased sophistication of the plethora of modern mobile equipment rechargeable battery development hasn't kept pace and hence the time that these devices can run before they have be recharged has decreased. For example my low-end 2G mobile phone with a small battery has a stand-by time of about two weeks (even after 2-years use), whereas with my new Android smart phone with a much larger battery (even with WiFi, 3G and data turned off most of the time) I'd be lucky to get one week. It's all very well having all these mobile devices, but they won't work once the batteries run out.

The battery time of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones is still much better than laptops.

J.Ja

I tried to run TurboCAD on my Droid smart phone, but it didn't work too well. Seriously, though, I do a fair amount of CAD and other graphics work, which are completely impossible on a netbook, tablet or what have you. I really like having portable tools, but sometimes you have to get back into the shop and get the big stuff out. Going all mobile is probably a good idea for some folks, but I gotta have my big clunky PC.

My imagination just committed suicide trying to envision running a CADD program on a smartphone.

But the intent is the same.

My only phone has been my mobile phone for 7 years.

My imagination just committed suicide trying to envision running a CADD program on a smartphone!

I have seen so many people try to do exactly this and after $2-3K on devices they still end up coming to me to ask to use my desktop, that's right, desktop computer. These devices are great for what they are, just don't try to make them what they're not.

A whole lot of sensible and informative comments without Mac or PC or Droid trolls ruining it (so far). Is that a record?

I still need to see a mobile application that can do an Excel Pivot Table. Does anyone know of such?

Anyone mention size of screen for ease of use?

I have a windows tablet (Acer w500) & an iPhone 4
The tablet runs Win7 so all of my existing windows applications & hardware connects just fine.
It has both wireless & wired network capability
It includes a detachable keyboard. If you want to bring the keyboard, it can snap closed just like a laptop. As well, it 2 USB ports & HDMI. It light & battery last around 6 hours or so.
The list goes on & pretty lightweight.
This machine goes a long way to replace a laptop, so yes, you can pretty much go entirely without a desktop & a laptop - Always depending on your needs

Just give me a good laptop and wireless and I'm happy. You can even take my phone. Please take my phone...