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This topic takes us back to the early 1980’s when computers migrated into the corporate world and further migrated towards being a requisite amongst the general public (Goodman 2000). Technology has rapidly changed in the last decade such that from a functional standpoint, laptops are more compact, faster, as well as more economical (Ward 2009).

The internet has become an integral part of today’s society that it is growing to become the ‘3rd hand’ of every individual in the forth coming generations (Videojug 2010). Nowadays people carry internet with them in laptops, mobiles, notebooks and mp3 players (. The forecast could make someone think even broader as one can take it to such an extent of using internet in the pens and why not even in the nails. As the device gets smaller, the usage and the mobility become easier. But the question arises here. How about the efficiency and the performance?

Mobile phones can very well replace a landline phone since it has all the features of the landline phone, but can a mobile phone replace a laptop in the same way???
Firstly, the availability of Wi-Fi everywhere nowadays may enhance the utility of mobile phones. But this usage is restricted towards just surfing and very few added advantages. With many businesses happening online these days, video conferencing has become quite essential to working class professionals. As a matter of fact, laptops already act as a helping hand to all such applications and of course moving towards increased efficiency and performance.

Secondly, one should agree with the statement ‘size matters’. To enhance mobility, tiny versions are growing at a vast rate, but these have restricted usage. The mobile phones are limited towards surfing, maps and so on and so forth, but laptops serve a wider purpose. With the emerging new editions like smaller notebooks and very recently I-pads, the laptops have become much smaller with comparable performance.

Thirdly, there are many disadvantages with the features a mobile phone could hold. Multi tasking could always reduce the performance speed in a mobile and when it comes to viewing many websites at a stretch could be a predicament. As an added token, with the storage media migrating from CDs to DVDs and further towards Blue ray discs, at least a disc insertion space is necessitated. With networking in computers becoming highly essential in a business environment with facilities like LAN and system sharing, mobile phones which are literally restricted in a working atmosphere could not dole out many purposes. Moreover live streaming, gaming could not be satisfactory with its performance in a mobile phone. The storage space and public folder sharing has become highly essential and a mobile phone could think of a maximum of 100 GB storage space, where as only the RAM speed has increased to 1TB in Japan.

Fourthly, with a lot of new viruses and hacking happening these days, security issues will be a big question mark with mobile phones where it only has a security lock which could be enabled.

Fifthly, as the mobile phone usage has increased in the last decade, even mobile phone thefts and misplacements have increased simultaneously.

Finally, there are wide varieties of applications which have become a part of the routine work style such as presentations, working on documents, spread sheets, movies, webinars, educational episodes and many more. Readability is quite essential to perform these tasks. The technology could improve, the versions may become smaller and the weight may be reduced, but ultimately humans are going to use it. Even after ages, the human eye might not have a larger diameter with increased reading power. Ultimately clarity and performance is always expected in a human environment and WILL LAPTOPS BE REPLACED BY MOBILE PHONES?

References

Goodman, D.J. (2000) ‘The Wireless Internet: Promises and Challenges’. Computer-Los Alamitos 33 (7), 36-41.

Videojug (2010) The future of the internet [online] available from [15 february 2010]

Ward, M. (2009) 'Technology changes 'outstrip' netbooks'. BBC [online] 28 December. available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8421491.st> [15 February 2010]