The phone is expected to gain power over the PC’s throne
You can definitely not look past the enourmous change that mobile and desktop computing platforms have had on the communication between people in recent times.While the hierarchy of these devices is continuously evolving, phones are increasingly replacing desktops and laptops as the primary computing device in our digital lifestyle. Google has found from their research that more people have a mobile that has internet access than a PC or laptop in five of these important markets (U.S., UK, Germany, France and Japan). In the States this percent is 8 percent higher.
Growth can also be seen in a secondary form; this can be called Nomadic Computing 2.0. In this model, the phone itself plays a primary role in powering computing beyond its own small form factor. As the vice president of product design for the mobile media company Zumobi, I’ve noticed an interesting trend in the next generation of mobile user experiences. More and more so, the functions and user interface plans that were once the preview of our other devices (PCs, laptops, TVs) are actually being powered directly by the computing hardware and software that is located in our phones.
Technological devices such as the television, which was at one time our primary source of media, will soon be given to much more temporary output displays that are provided for the phone. We can already see the first signs of this in the novel applications of Apple’s AirPlay technology. Playing Real Racing 2 on your phone? Have an Apple TV? With a few taps, the driver’s-eye view is sent wirelessly to the TV, and the phone itself provides the input hardware (an accelerometer-powered steering wheel) and displays useful secondary content (like the racetrack route). Here’s the shocking twist in this scenario, both of these screens are being computed and rendered by the phone. The Apple TV is just passing through a stream of pixels for presentation on the TV’s larger display. This particular scenario depicts just how the iPhone and the iPad give the developers the freedom of rendering and designing absolutely different user interfaces when it is connected to a larger display.
The users superphone is taken complete advantage of by the Nomadic Computing 2.0 model. It does this so it can use it as a main core that could power an array of different user interface hardware. In other scenarios, the user’s superphone plugs into purpose-built forms appropriate to the task at hand. Recent Android-based products from Motorola (the Lapdock) and Asus (the Padfone) enable the phone to assume the form factor of a laptop or a tablet, respectively. If i am to reinstate, with these products, the companion phone can not just simply be connected with an already existing tablet or laptop. With the help of a lightweight, keyboard, modular screen and battery it can become all of these forms.
The phone is expected to gain power over the PC’s throne
Research labs and startups have been researching the appeal of Nomadic Computing for some time now. They have done this through such projects as IBM’s early MetaPad and OQO’s early line of ultraportable PCs. These determined efforts were in the end hindered by their large size, expensive price, extremely short battery life, very slow cellular broadband and very difficult software architectures. Motorola and Asus are modern super-phone based methods. They deal with all of these hindrances and limitations via developments in new age phone hardware.
Looking at IOS’s past works, you can kind of envision what the future iPad may perhaps look like. It may transform into merely nothing more than a dock in which your Iphone can be inserted. Without computing or networking of its own, such a device would be inexpensive and lightweight. Notably, even today, when a user installs a dual-binary iPhone/iPad app (indicated by a “ ” in the app store), the software bundle includes all of the code and graphical assets required to render both the iPhone and iPad versions of that app. We must ask if Apple is preparing for the future for products that leverage Nomadic Computing technologies. I leave it up to you to decide.
The model of Nomadic Computing 2.0 that will be centered around devices will not be everyones cup of tea. Many will instead choose a cloud-based continuous client model as envisioned by Joshua Topolsky. OnLive and similar services expect an even more radical future. In this future, the thin client device receives pre-rendered pixels streamed from a server in the sky. These potential computing models have obvious positive factors. And, in union with Nomadic Computing 2.0, they will make way for new innovations in user experience.
On the other hand, several models may come out all throughout the year 2012 and even beyond that. It is apparent that the phone is well on its way to taking away the throne from its PC overlords and becoming the center of our digital lives. The situation with previously disruptive technologies applies to this situation at hand; these new models of computing will have dramatic effects on the collective businesses of hardware, software, services, media, entertainment and advertising.
