As many of my readers here are aware, I recently acquired one of Nokia’s new mobile phones, the N900. I keep telling everybody, that’s it’s really a computer and not a mobile phone, but were all just so used to calling any gadget that fits in your pocket a mobile phone it’s hard to get the concept across. As cool and advanced as the N900 is, I really believe that there are tons of room for improvement with it, and that it’s successors will one day replace the desktop computer as we know it. That’s a pretty big claim I know, but one that is quite possible within the next five years I think. There are people I work with, that prefer their mobile smartphone over their desktop or laptop computer.
The only thing I believe keeping mobiles away from replacing computers, is the human interface. Their screen size, and their keyboard layout are difficult for some to cope with. Entering this article, would be possible to do on my N900, but it would take me at least twice as long. My phone has more than enough processing power, but the screen real estate and typing with thumbs would be too slow for me. My kids would do better, after all the thousands of text message they’ve sent, their incredibly fast at thumb typing. That again is another reason why I think 5 years is plenty of time for mobile smart phones to be considered desktop replacements. We’re raising a generation of mini computer (cellphone) users. They’re more adept at using the technology, and the technology keeps getting better. It’s only a matter of time (very short time), when those two paths will become inexplicably connected.