hehe nice discussion made me think it would be nice to have it all in the small size so imagine setting the smartphone on your desk that is against the wall, turning down the lights or closing the shades and pressing a button on the side of the smartphone that turns on the laser keyboard in front of you AND the pico projector on the other side of the smartphone turning your desk into your keyboard and the wall into your screen, mebe you buy a 30 inch projector screen and thumb tack it onto the wall so the picture looks nice. walah!

Brian if we are only theorizing here, then sure it is possible for tablet style computing to replace the need for the traditional lap top. However, until these devices can run industrial strength applications on industrial strength OS platforms, I do not see this happening any time soon. Enterprise business users and students are the primary drivers for today’s lap top based computing technology. Current Cell phone capabilities and computing power have not yet met the level of capability that traditional computing platforms have. Some day they may, but many may not want to give up real movable keys, USB ports, large high speed memory and storage options, integrated CD/DVD RW drives, customization freedom, OS independence, and less risk of unintentional display damage during transport and some semblance of privacy that a clam shell type of display offers.

I agree with the other poster, who wants to lug around all the extra required peripherals, just to get Laptop/netbook like functionality?

Now what I would like to see, (assuming that we are still hypothesizing here) is a portable MID device that I could plug into a dock when I got home and have it link in with my home management/entertainment computing system for control of my home electronics and environment, controlled by voice commands or an AI like intelligent control system. When I leave, I want to plug it into my car’s dash dock (similar to the removable face radios in some car stereos) and have the same type of interface to the car’s computer systems/nav/climate control and entertainment systems. This is so it could automatically e-mail the dealer for any required maintenance and schedule an appointment. When at home, I could have started to watch a movie, told the MID to pause it, and to make it portable for continued viewing in the car’s entertainment system or on it’s own screen. When I get to the grocery store, my bags of MID automatically ordered groceries are there waiting for me to authorize payment. So I stop at Starbucks on the way home and my MID already e-mailed my Chai Tea order, ahead of me, so now I can just pay and sit with my MID and finish that movie!

The same goes for personal travel, as long as I do not have any serious typing that I need to do. Give me a robust voice responsive system and now I am in business.

Just sayin!

Nobody wants to have to lug around a stupid bluetooth keyboard either..

they want the keyboard IN the darn thing..

hey wait, thats called a laptop.

they just need to make them slide out. then i guess you could maybe call that a tablet.. but its really a laptop.

Filipe,

Thanks for the feedback, but would it be unreasonable in the near future for a mobile devices to attach to a larger touch screen for apps that demand it? Would it later be possible to launch an app or vm that resembles a traditional hi-res desktop environment for use with external peripherals?

Again, I’m predicting the demise of the “tier 3″ devices as smartphones become more capable through the use of external touch displays (attach android handheld to back of cheap 10″ dummy slate or in-car touch screen) and as tomorrow’s tablets with full OS and wireless keyboards evolve to render today’s laptops (the 1.5″ clamshell) obsolete.

“A laptop that simply flips its screen around to become a “tablet” is a laptop.”

Ah, but if a bluetooth keyboard is connected to a tablet, is it also merely a laptop?

I’m only predicting the demise of the third product category by way of the convergence of laptop and tablet since tablets will soon have the capability to replace laptops. I/O options will flourish, of course, and the 1.5 inch thick clamshell laptop will be termed a ‘luggable’.

Patrick,

I believe what we’ll see fairly soon is laptops morphing into tablets with accessory keyboards/mice – slim like the ipad, but powerful enough to do real work and view all available video (flash).

Brian

Hello,

“A friend recently shared an idea that I really like and it’s probably not a unique one. If a ’smartphone’ could accept mouse/keyboard input and output DV/HDMI video to a full size display at its native resolution (1280, 1680, 1920 pixels wide), it would allow us to plug in at home or work and never miss a beat.”

I kinda agree with your post in which you classify tablets as “tier 3″ devices that will be “short-lived”, since they are expected to evolve into smaller and hand-sized computers.

The problem with the idea that a powerful smartphone should provide dock functionality and thus work with today typical “PC” I/O peripherals (mouse, keyboard, large monitor) is that *it is a mobile device in essence*.

I mean, it’s built from scratch with mobile usability in mind (the “finger oriented” user interface, the OS touch model, misc mobile processing optimizations and stripped down/limited capabilities due do power requirements).

Unless you plan to deliver two types of user interface models in a mobile device (one for the on-the-go activity, and another one to a dock working mode), that will not work very well IMHO. Imagine an android home screen on a 1920×1080 resolution, with a keyboard and a mouse on your desk.

I know what you’re thinking, “the whole point of the idea is not feasible now, but in a short future, it may be”. With that, I agree.

There’s no way tablets are going to replace laptops, unless the figure out a way to get a real keyboard working on a tablet.

A laptop that simply flips its screen around to become a “tablet” is a laptop.

One that can disguise itself as a tablet.

But no one is going to want to do actual work trying to pluck at a virtual keyboard.. its just not going to happen.

I don’t think notebooks (laptops) are going anywhere soon. I’m pretty sure I’d not have much luck programming on a tablet, and I’m pretty sure the same goes for people writing reports, etc. You probably will see more Toshiba-style touchscreen hybrids, though, and they’ll get thinner.