Since the advent of the PC there has been a push for mobility, the first portable PC’s though were essentially full size PCs with a mini monitor built into the case.
But then came the laptop and notebook PC’s and so started the PC war, which form factor was going to win, did you need a desktop anymore? My first mobile device was a Mitac laptop that I had for university, it have a monochrome monitor, huge 40Mb harddrive and a powerpack that was almost as big as the device itself!
But everything heated up with the launch, in 2010, of the iPad. Since then we’ve had ongoing predictions of the end of the PC.
This war has forced (or encouraged) manufacturers to create many kinds of form factors. Some successful, some not.
We’ve had tablets from Android, tablets in different sizes from 7″ to almost 13″, this had led to touch screen laptops, with Windows 8 failed OS attempts to merge these form factors, then came the more successful Surface Pro that brought a pen and a detachable keyboard. Others have tried fold around screens, Apple tried a pencil. And so it goes on and on.
But hands up who uses only one device, whether it’s a PC, a laptop or a tablet. Just the one and none of the others? Personally I went from that Mitac notebook, to a desktop, added and iPad 3 and now have replaced the desktop with a Surface Pro and the iPad 3 with an iPad Pro and Pencil.
So no I would put forward it’s not going to be about a single device, we pretty much all use different form factors for different scenarios. Whether it’s the type of work or the location we’re in, it can make one form factor more convenient than the other.
If I’m doing work, then I prefer a PC with two large monitors. But for browsing the internet or some shopping, I’ll use either the PC or iPad, taking notes I prefer the pencil and an iPad over the pen and my Surface Pro. But it’s all personal preference.
We’ve reached device détente.
But as in the cold war just as things seemed to be calming down and we were all settled on having a laptop and an iPad things are starting to escalate again. With the Surface Duo, the Surface Neo and the Samsung Galaxy Fold another new form factor is emerging.
I personally like the Surface Neo concept,
the ability to have a two screen set up with laptop functionality could work well for those who like the separation of two screens. Apple filed a patent a couple of years ago for something similar so we could see a MacBook or iPad device like this soon too.
However in reality I think this will be a blip in the story and just be another option and probably more a curiosity than anything substantial. Fundamentally the thing that has driven the success of multiple devices over having just one device is the software and more importantly the cloud platform behind the scenes, whether it’s Google’s, Apple’s or Microsoft’s it’s the same concept of being able to pick up where you left off on a totally different device with ease.
More on how these concepts are arriving in law firms in the next parts.
