I’m fully convinced that mobile devices, especially Tablets, will eventually replace our traditional desktop PCs!
Crazy talk you say; we need full versions of Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Avid Studio and Final Cut Pro running on Tablets in order to do that, oh and plenty of USB ports on my Tablets so that I can plug-in my hefty Excel spreadsheets in order to work on them in the train ride on my way home from the office.
There are plenty of articles that include a long list of things Tablets still need in order to replace our PCs, here’s an interesting one that lists 8 things Tablets still can’t do, among them, the need for more storage (probably why Microsoft is putting USB ports on the Surface), not great for games (really?), printing problems, no optical drives (for backups I suppose), and that they won’t run power software, including Adobe Photoshop, Avid Studio, and Microsoft OneNote.
Personally I think that most of these articles miss the bigger point, namely the fact that most people think that Tablets replacing our PCs will require a 1:1 task-replacement approach. I don’t buy this argument.
I actually believe this quote gives us a clue of how this whole thing will take place:
“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan
I think a more sound argument is that Tablets will replace our PCs because the mobile revolution is “redefining” the term productivity.
In other words, we are currently shaping our mobile tools and soon these amazing devices, along with the incredibly creative apps that accompany them, will shape us and redefine every single task we do from here on out, including learning design, image editing, web design and yes every productivity task as well.
Perhaps the future isn’t about writing long documents using a full version of Word on our Tablets, maybe the future calls for shorter and simpler writing, and apps like Pages is all we need. And just maybe we don’t need to run the full version of Photoshop CS6 on a Surface Tablet via Windows 8, maybe the future calls for simpler edits to our photos and either Photoshop Touch or Instagram will suffice.
What are you thoughts?
