Here at Mobility Nigeria, we predicted sometime back – and have stood our ground – that mobility is the future of personal computing.
With last week’s announcement by Nokia of the Booklet 3G (Nokia’s own take on mini Laptops), we just might be inching closer and closer to true mobility in the PC world. The Booklet 3G is essentially a netbook – a mini laptop, but a little bit more.
One of the things that the Nokia Booklet 3G brings to the PC world was included in Wikipedia’s list of the seven things that a mobile can do that a PC cannot do – the ability to stay connected all the time. See our article on that, The Modern Mobile Phone is Inherently Superior in Capability than a Laptop or Desktop PC.
The new device from Nokia will have always-on connectivity, thanks to a built-in 3G/HSDPA modem and a SIM card slot. With this inclusion, Wikipedia’s list has been reduced to six and the PC has taken one more step towards becoming truly mobile.
Battery life does not make it to Wikipedia’s list, but I think that one of the advantages that a mobile has over the laptop is the fact that its battery life lasts much longer than that of a laptop – many times going for more than 24 hours before running out. This, my humble opinion, is part of what true mobility entails. The Nokia Booklet 3G, while still not offering battery life that is at par with mobile phones boasts an impressive 12hrs of battery life. More and more, battery life is increasing on laptops, thus making them all the more truly mobile.
As we become more and more mobile, one wonders, “Will the mobile phone replace the laptop PCs or will the PCs become 100% mobile to the point where mobile phones are no longer needed?”
My thinking is that both will compliment each other to give a truly mobile experience.
This post was written by
Dayo Olutunfese – who has written 56 posts on Mobility blog.
Dayo Olutunfese is a mobility consultant and seminar facilitator. He is on the staff of Mobility.
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August 31st, 2009 at 4:35 pm Browsing with
Dayo,
Nice one. On second thoughts, perhaps we should have titled this, “The PC and Smartphone Inch Closer” instead?
Over at Digital Life blog, someone made the following statement, “So Nokia thinks running the world’s worst OS will be a game changer?”. I am not sure if this individual thought that through, but it seems to me that there’s not very much wrong with Nokia in choosing to run the world’s most used OS.
Let’s get it over with, it is mostly geeks who think of Linux, Mac or whatever other OS may exist out there. The vast majority of PC users know only Windows – and are comfortable with it.
In my opinion, tapping into such a massive market is a good move – regardless that I generally am not excited about Windows either. Whatever its failings in the eyes of super users, Windows is available, familiar, and gets the job done.
We shall see how this plays out.
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August 31st, 2009 at 10:15 pm Browsing with
Yomi,
You are absolutely right. While I was hoping for Nokia to use a different OS, I see the sense in them going with what is already available and that people are alraedy comfortable with.
What Nokia has done with Windows that will give it a bit of a unique experience is the integration of their Ovi services and also GPS with Nokia Maps, and my favorite, the HD screen. This is my humble opinion.
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September 1st, 2009 at 10:06 am Browsing with
Well,i think nokia has only used the windows7 OS on its booklet 3G just to introduce its first mini laptop to the world because window is the most used OS on pc’s. But subsequently the nokia’s own new ‘Maemo 5 OS’ based on Linux shall be its future platform to run as its ‘Vertical OS’ that will be used on all its array of smartphones,notebooks,and other mobile internet devices.Already it first phone to use the Maemo5 OS (N900) is out to taste the waters and hope to be launched tomorrow at the nokia world conference in Germany.So the old symbian OS could only be supplementing the new OS in future.I think the nokia’s resolve to conquer the mobile world is slowly but surely, given the capabilities of these new two great devices i.e the nokia booklet 3G and the N900. But lets keep our fingers crossed.
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September 2nd, 2009 at 9:37 pm Browsing with
Abubakar,
I doubt if Symbian will play second fiddle to Maemo. Why would Nokia pay so much to acquire the Symbian licence just recently, only to now consign it to second place?
Why would Nokia want to throw away an OS that powers the vast majority of smartphones in the world today? It does not make sense.
No; Maemo will play a niche role, and Symbian will continue to be the dominant mobile OS used by Nokia.
PS: Whether we geeks like it or not, touchscreen devices like the iPhone are not likely to rule the mobile world for a long, long time. I love the iPhone UI, but it doesn’t change the fact that regular phones still rule – and will rule for years to come.
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September 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 am Browsing with
Dayo,
Interesting! Exactly where will you place the HTC Shift? I think that hybrid device released 18 months ago is closest to true mobility than Nokia’s netbook.
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September 4th, 2009 at 9:34 pm Browsing with
It is not that nokia will dump symbian OS so soon for Maemo5, but most of its flagship devices shall now be based on Maemo5 os because it has the capability to run like computer.It is highly multitasking than symbian OS and can render webpages exactly the way a pc does.Symbian is mainly designed for phones but Maemo is specifically developed to help nokia run a ‘vertical OS’ that it can use for all its intended future devices like its netbooks,laptop, and smartphones so that its array of devices can sync with themselves much much easier, be it nokia laptop,netbook,or phone just like apple’s OS.Symbian OS could still be there to run its s60 phones and mainly gets its finance by moneys from other vendors like samsung,S.E etc
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