First we replaced desktop computers with laptops, allowing people to take their computers with them. Now laptops could be in line for a similar extinction in the mobile office. Smart phones such as the Apple iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry are removing the need to take a laptop with you to work.

Over the past couple of years phones have become much more powerful, and are no longer just a device to make and receive calls. Smart phones are simply a development of the mobile phone that we all once had, which allowed us to send and receive text messages and phone calls, usually in between a game of snake.
The development of the mobile phone has always been fast, but when Apple introduced its first IPhone it was immediately thrust into the limelight, and established smart phones in the consumer market. Now customers are expecting more from their phones. They want phones that allow them to browse the internet, send and receive emails and even keep up to date on Facebook and other social networking sites.

So why are people preferring the phone to laptops? Generally it seems to be because of ease of use and convenience. This is combined with the fact that you can check your emails anywhere and the speed of mobile network technology like 3G is always improving. Continuing improvements to smart phones such as increased screen sizes and software that allows you to move more of your daily tasks to your phone means that the phone is becoming the device that you take with you for you daily tasks, and the laptop becoming what you use for lengthy processing.

As with everything though there are also downsides. Small screen sizes, restrictive input devices and low processing power will never rival laptops. Smart phones can make the smallest tasks tedious. In my opinion phones have a long way to go before they replace laptops, but it is definitely making people change the way they work.

Will my site still look the same? As people are using them to browse the internet it also mean certain changes have to be made if you want your website to perform as well on a mobile browser. Small screen sizes mean that you have to make sure you communicate your message in a much smaller frame.
There are also a lot more tools you can use on your site that smart phones offer, such as GPRS tracking and tagging and dedicated apps driving marketing campaigns.

In conclusion. As an Apple iPhone user myself, I definitely agree that phones have replaced the laptop to perform certain tasks. I now keep track of my emails, social networks and to some extent browse the web using my phone. There is still definitely a place however for a laptop when performing processing and administration tasks, as phones are a long way off accomplishing total take over of the device for the mobile office.