The Teckki Says

In this increasingly connected world, there are two major reasons to possess a smartphone - the need to be connected and the convenience of being connected. I fall into the category of the latter. I check my email, news websites, and sometimes my Facebook page, among other things, all before I get to the office. The convenience of not having to wait several minutes to boot up a computer is ideal.

Often, I bounce between the two. These little devices could never replace a full sized computer. With the industrial strength computing power I need in developing programs and editing pictures and video, something that I hold an arm’s length to use one-handed could never replace my high-powered box.

Or could it? The following story may make you think about just how fast current technology, and conventional wisdom, could evolve.

I worked at Sears Roebuck when we were celebrating out 100th year in business. At the time, Sears was the world's largest retailer. There were others, Montgomery Ward’s, among them, but there was also Kmart. Wal-Mart was still a collection of rural stores. You could even buy groceries at some Sears’ stores. We were so big for so long, no one ever dreamed we would be anything less.

But we were wrong.

What we told the public, and what we did in private, were different things. We were losing money, and closing stores. We ceded the rural market to Wal-Mart. We didn't realize how fast the environment would change, and didn't adapt fast enough to make a difference. We were also being attacked not as a large department store, but in segments. Home Depot was attacking the Craftsman and hardware brands. J.C. Penney and Kmart were attacking apparel and merchandise. Best Buy and Circuit City were attacking Kenmore and appliances. Wal-Mart was beating up everyone on price, and it hadn't even moved into the suburban areas. The retail market was changing and taking no prisoners.

I see parallels in the computing world. First, Blackberry devices have taken over the email world. Google is in active battle with Microsoft on three fronts: Desktop applications, the Chrome web browser, and at the heart of Microsoft itself, the operating system Android. This battle has even spilled into the mobile world where Android is on target to snare the largest market share, having already dwarfed Windows Mobile, but soon overtaking Apple's iPhone OS4. As an extension of that battle, the tablet, which the troika of Microsoft, chip maker Intel, and the small cadre of computer hardware companies like Dell, HP and Toshiba hoped to dominate, Apple’s iPad is king. All of this will be at the expense of the big box.

Sears didn't disappear, and neither will the big box. But Sears I used to work at in no way resembles the Sears that exists today, and in the next decade, neither will the desktop computer in which I type this post. The Internet, along with wireless devices, has forever altered the landscape, and is quickly relegating the big box to the background as a hub in which all others draw upon as needed.

These changes will cause their own issues, but the momentum will go forward and resolve these problems, not backward to the familiar. It will also mean that businesses and organizations will have to adapt to a multi-device world. In this scenario, people have not stopped using their computers; they have added other devices to the mix. There will not be less of an information demand, just multiple different ways of presenting it. Access and presentation will be key.

In a companion article, The Eye of My Apple, I chronicle Charlie Havens, of Wooded Isle Computing, as an early purchaser of Apple's iPad. As an Apple computer consultant, Charlie keeps abreast on Apple's technologies as his clientele, mainly business and organizations, are increasingly looking for ways to incorporate Apple's new devices into an increasingly crowded world. His experiences with these technologies gives us insight, and will likely mirror our own.