Netbooks and smartphones are useful business devices, but it is idealistic to expect users to lug both around permanently. Which is the preferred corporate connector?
Mark Strathmore, business-to-business manager of Nokia SA, says while each device has its own advantages and disadvantages, he would choose the smartphone. "It is the ultimate converged device," he says. "If you look at the actual numbers in the industry, it's very clear to see that the days of the non-converged device are really numbered and the days of the converged device look pretty rosy." Also, the mobile phone is "about the only technology that has fully half the global population covered. There's nothing that even approaches that."
Tim Walter, GM for product and marketing at Nashua Mobile, says the smartphone market is growing rapidly; "[For Nashua Mobile] one in every three phones we're shipping is a smartphone. So from our perspective, it's the fastest growing segment.
"It's not just a big business thing anymore," he adds, and a lot more regular consumers are embracing smartphones. "They've seen how the benefits of mobility, both from a cost and a productivity point of view, make it worthwhile."
Living in harmony
While the smartphone seems to be the more popular device, there are definite advantages to netbooks.
Strathmore says: "One of my favourite researchers, Tomi Ahonen, writes very extensively on the mobile industry and data in the mobile industry. He uses a metaphor of 30-minute tasks and 30-second tasks. The 30-minute task is something you would typically use a netbook for. Because, at the end of the day, you are not going to type a 20-page document on a mobile phone. However, you are more likely to perform a 30-second task, like responding to a key e-mail or making a quick edit to a document, on a mobile phone. So the reality is, it's about suitability to task and the ability to leverage both technologies simultaneously."
Moseley says: "The two devices have different roles to play in the market and will co-exist with each other. The netbook is a two-hand device, while the smartphone is a one-hand device. A netbook offers a bigger screen and keyboard and more processing power than a smartphone 's a more comfortable device to use if you're going to be browsing the Web, composing e-mails or working on documents. A smartphone is compact enough to keep in your pocket at all times and is ideal for sending quick messages via SMS or e-mail, or quickly checking your Facebook status."
Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell, says: "Netbooks fulfil a very specific mobile computing need as a 'smaller, more affordable, laptop' and smartphones are first and foremost a phone with computing capabilities, now being added with Internet and location, making it the most important interface for consumers."
He adds: "Netbooks have better computing power, a full type keyboard, a bigger screen, familiar operating system (Windows) for those already using PCs (smaller, lighter and more affordable than PCs). Some notebooks also come with mobile wireless capability, which means Internet in more remote places."
The ultra mobile device market, small connectivity devices such as a netbook or the iPad, is predicted to reach worldwide enterprise adoption of $12.5 billion by 2015, according to a report by ABI Research. The report also predicts worldwide adoption of these devices, which do not include smartphones, to average 55% per year.
De Villiers says: "It is really not fair to compare. I would bet the majority of people who have a netbook today also have a smartphone, but the reverse is not true... The buying decision I was faced with recently was between a netbook or an iPad, not a netbook or a smartphone."
Strathmore echoes this. "The reality is if I had to choose one, I would choose a smartphone. But your typical purchaser of a netbook is not in a position where they need to choose between the two."
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