Will Mobility Really Replace PCs?
My co-worker at Sprint, Aaron Bahney recently asked me if I really believed that mobility would replace PCs. He made the point that many folks are pretty happy with their current desk-based experience.
Here’s my response:
The Power of Mobility is based on the premise that Mobility will be as big of a revolution for businesses as the PC was and the Internet was.
The PC didn’t eliminate the need for data centers, instead it enabled workers and businesses to do things they couldn’t do before. In the end, we need more data center space than ever because of all the PC-supporting servers.
The Internet didn’t eliminate the need for PCs, instead it enabled workers and businesses to do things they couldn’t do before. In fact, the Internet renewed PC growth as entire new segments realized they needed a PC just to access the Internet.
Mobility won’t eliminate the need for fixed communications, instead it will enable workers and businesses to do things they couldn’t do before. Will it mean increased demand for fixed communications? I don’t see that yet.
But maybe. Here’s an example. I recently spoke at a conference in Omaha. One of the other presenters was from a local power district. They’d mobilized their field workers with ruggedized laptops. This fundamentally changed their processes from paper based to direct entry and put new tools in the hands of workers right where they needed them. It did drastically reduce the need for data entry, which undoubtedly impacted some jobs back at the central location. But I’m guessing that it’s also dramatically increasing the flow of information through the business - in from the field and out to the field. That likely means more bandwidth is required from headquarters to the Internet, if nothing else.
I have often said that wires (or fibers) are much better at carrying traffic than wireless connections, and I doubt anyone will credibly argue with me. For voice communications, we’re approaching the point where wireless works “perfectly” (we obviously aren’t there yet, but we’re a lot closer than we used to be). For data, how fast is fast enough? For some applications, the value of mobility is so high and the need for bandwidth is low enough that wireless obviously wins. For other applications, mobility is meaningless and bandwidth needs are high enough that wireless can’t win. (My laptop has WiFi built in, but when I’m at my desk, I still use the Ethernet cable!)
The book is intended to help businesses figure out which applications can capture the power of mobility to improve their competitiveness or profitability and figure out what needs to change in their business to capture that power.
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