An increasing part of our business is
developing mobile sites and mobile apps, reflective of the societal
shift in media usage, of course. In fact, mobile is growing so
rapidly and so fiercely that some techs-perts have predicted that
desktop computers will go the way of steam engines and the pony
express. It's almost become a cliché: “Desktop is dead.”
But is this true? Will mobile devices
ultimately replace desktops for good? Will desktops only be found in
museums in the next ten to twenty years?
You know, “they” said the same
about theaters in the eighties and nineties. With the advent of VCRs
and DVDs, pundits asked what reason would people have in forsaking
the comfort of their own home and wallets only to deal with the
hassle of time schedules, parking, and expense of going to the movie
theater? Surely, VCRs and DVDs would replace the movie theater.
Let us answer that in one word:
“Bigness,” and as they say in Texas, “big is always better.”
One theater chain even uses “Go big or go home.” in one of their
campaigns. While there was a decline of theater sales from the
mid-eighties through the early nineties, attributed to home video,
the theater business has seen a 30% increase in the number of tickets
sold since 1995, while DVD sales and rentals are now in a decline.
(Just ask bankrupt Blockbusters.) Of course, theaters had to change a
few things to survive. We now have cineplexes showing 20 movies at
one time, stadium seating, surround sound, larger screens, IMax, and
a resurgence of 3D. All good stuff that makes a fun event for the
movie-goer. I believe scientists would call this adaptation.
This same philosophy (and then some)
applies to the desktop. While mobile devices typically cater to the
consumer, desktops typically cater to the producer, i.e. business,
and ultimately, that's what makes the world go around. Here are our
top five reasons desktops will remain alive and well in 2013 and
beyond:
Screen size: Desktop
monitors typically run from 21 inches to limitless for external
displays while laptops reach a mere 17”. Tablets are around 9.5”,
and smart phones...well, you get the picture. Phones definitely have
their place in this world, but so does the big screen. In fact,
because the smaller screens are space-restricted, special websites
and apps have to be created to accommodate them as well as the
user's finger, meaning you may not have full access to a website and
all the wondrous information and integration that a desktop computer
has. As the canvas goes, so goes the painting.
9-to-5 Ergonomics: Smart
phones and tablets are great for couch-potatoing in your recliner as
you tweet about the TV show you're watching, but put them on a desk
to crunch some numbers and their limitations are quickly evident.
Bending over a flat screen on a flat surface for eight hours a day
will only increase backaches and neck strains, not your paycheck.
The large vertical screen and detached keyboard of a desktop lends
itself for better posture during extended computer use. Not even
using a tablet stand with a blue-tooth keyboard suffices during an
eight-hour shift.
And speaking
about keyboards, information workers want a detached extended
keyboard that's not virtual because when you push an “e”, you
know it's there by the feel of the key. On a virtual you have to do a
double-take to ensure your entry is correct and that your big fingers
didn't accidentally hit the “w” instead. Not very efficient for
the one who translates a lot of information digitally.
Storage: Ten years ago 64GB
of storage was unheard of on a desktop. Now, it's commonplace on
tablets and even available on some smart phones. But guess what?
That doesn't compare to the TBs that you can get on the cheap for a
desktop computer. Consider this: An average family of four stores
between 20 to 60 GB of photos and home videos, and that's before
iTunes music and app downloads. There are Internet storage options,
but they usually require subscriptions and you have to be connected
to the Internet to use them, which can also slow down both the
upload and download of those files.
Computations. As we've
stated, mobile devices currently cater more to consumers than to
producers. There are exceptions such as Square credit card reader,
where producers use their mobile phones to process credit cards, but
ultimately somewhere, somehow, sometime, that transaction needs to
be recorded in a bookkeeping database or spreadsheet application,
which is usually found on a desktop. Even in an cloud situation, the
multi-core processor and rich system memory that a desktop offers
parses and delivers that information much, much, more quickly than a
mobile device could, if it can at all. Additionally, designers,
architects, videographers, and other creatives inherently process
large files by virtue of their trade and need big processors to
accomplish the task. Desktop to the rescue.
Less abuse. Longer
lifespan. Let's face it. Because it's mobile, it will be
dropped, lost, left in the cold, left in the heat, just left, or
dented, scratched and cracked. It's the nature of things. A desktop,
however, is much less likely to receive such abuse and, by
extension, will last longer.
What will likely happen in the future
is that the desktop, like the theaters, will evolve and change. Who
knows what desktops will look like in the future...Ironman holograms?
MI6 touch boards with voice activation instead of keyboards? What the
past tells us is that the sky is the limit. What the present tells us
is that theaters have outlasted VCRs, businesses will still need to
do business, and mobile devices and desktops are not mutually
exclusive.
Sources:
“Talking Points: Ticket Prices.”
The National Association of Theatre Owners.
