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RSS feedsWhat a difference a decade makes. Today, most companies don't think twice about buying a notebook computer instead of a desktop unless a worker is truly desk bound. The same is true of consumers. But notebooks now face the threat of PDAs and smartphones. Handhelds are closer to becoming complete business computing devices than you might think. Form factor is a matter of personal taste, but the key requirements for portables have always been display size, keyboard size and weight.
Users have realised that they can do a lot with a screen the size of a bulky business card, and the excitement over RIM's BlackBerry has opened a lot of eyes in the IT world.
Companies are also rethinking the way they make data available. Users' biggest requirement is the ability to read emails when away from their desks, so manufacturers using the Palm operating system or Windows CE have been careful to add email to their products.
Handhelds will never be a match for notebooks in terms of sheer processor speed, but the truth is that most users don't really need multi-gigahertz performance.
However, handheld specifications are improving all the time. A Pocket PC such as the HP iPaq runs a 400MHz processor, has a 3.8in screen and 128Mb of Ram, basic features which rival the mass-market notebooks of five years ago. It has wireless options and supports a full-sized keyboard.
Where BlackBerry leads, others will follow, and some of its rivals now incorporate thumb keyboards. Also due soon are holographic keyboards that project beams from handhelds.
Where screens are concerned, smaller sizes don't necessarily mean less functionality. Handheld displays are indeed smaller and lower-resolution than those on notebooks, but they can be used to read attached spreadsheets and documents, or to view pictures.
PocketPC and Palm users can also kit out their handhelds to view resized Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Palm offers the Documents To Go application suite for this purpose, while the PocketPC uses Microsoft's PocketOffice suite. All these devices have colour screens, at least on the higher-end models.
Wireless hotspots may still be far from ubiquitous, but wireless capability is quickly becoming the must-have of mobile computing.
The 802.11 standards that collectively form the Wi-Fi market (802.11g is the one most people say will ultimately matter) have made hotspots an intriguing prospect for new business applications.
Wireless data options are becoming pervasive. Handheld makers are adding support either through add-in cards or directly on their motherboards, and the trend is set to continue. Ultimately, this means more people sipping their coffee with one hand and surfing the web with the other.
The challenge of making applications work for mobile devices has bedevilled companies for years. But with customer relationship management software becoming popular among sales forces, they have persisted, with the result that mobile workers spend less time fighting with their systems.
Handhelds are increasingly becoming a focus for business application developers. The enhanced Mobile Edition of Java will create more effective application environments for handheld and mobile users, offering greater potential to access corporate applications.
Good Technology has also introduced a wireless service which it hopes will do for SAP, Siebel and other back-office applications what BlackBerry did for email.
A decade from now, PC makers will still sell large numbers of notebooks. Full-sized keyboards, generous displays and the latest, fastest processors will always attract users.
But we are in the early phases of another shift in the computing market towards greater mobility, and more and more users may well adopt handheld computers, or perhaps even smartphones, as their main computers.
Laptops
This is a golden era for portable computers. Processors such as Intel's Centrino have created a new class of system, more dedicated to longer battery life, and notebooks can now legitimately rival desktops for performance.
After years of refining a couple of basic form factors, the number of potential platforms is stunning.
"The market is bifurcating," said Gateway vice president of notebook products Ajay Gupta. His division is unusual, in that it is seeing a return to larger portables - laptops rather than notebooks, and 12lb-plus monsters better described as 'totables'.
Such dimensions were anathema in the early days of notebook computing when it was hard to engineer a true notebook device, but today these bigger machines exist because people want to buy them.
If, on the other hand, low weight and decent battery life are paramount, there are ultra-portables. Otherwise, there are 15in, 16in and even 17in screens (the latter inspired by the arrival of Apple's gorgeous PowerBook).
The split is likely to continue, particularly as high-end processors run even hotter.
Mobile phones
While handhelds don't have much in the way of market share compared with PCs, mobile phones do. There are about one billion mobile phones in use worldwide and in the next few years they could well become an integral part of the IT infrastructure.
Most of us will toss out our small-screen models in favour of fancy ones with colour screens, mini-mousepads, and an improved version of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition, that will support serious business applications.
Tony Davis, chief executive at mobile application publisher Tira Wireless, indicated that some companies have already extended their infrastructure to include mobiles.
"It's technically possible now, but it's in niches targeting pretty cumbersome devices like the PocketPC and Palm-based platforms," he said.
Within two years, Davis believes IT departments will routinely deploy business applications to mobile phones.
There is also a trend toward converged phones and PDAs, a market that has long tantalised vendors but turned off some potential customers.
This is all likely to change now that products such as the Handspring Treo 600, a combination Palm device and phone, are reaching maturity.
These so-called converged devices have been around for several years. Gregg Grossman, president of US executive recruiter Vantage Point Associates, started using them when they first arrived, in the form of a Kyocera phone with a Palm operating system.
Grossman now uses the Treo 300, a predecessor of the Treo 600. He explained that he still needs his notebook for presentations, but added: "Eighty per cent and maybe more of what I need, I can do using this phone."
See also:
Analyst blames exit of Sony and decline of palmOne 28 Oct 2004
Mobile working has become a fact of life. In this Computing Special Report we look at the relevant technology, and the effects it will have on your business. 19 Mar 2004
HP has put its iPaq range on a diet but can the slimmed-down h1940 compete? 06 Nov 2003
All Mobile Communications
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