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What I see that could happen is that you carry around a multiple form-factor device, e.g. alone it is just a phone, but plug it into a special screen and its a tablet. Attach it to a screen with a physical keyboard and it'd work as a laptop, plug it into a bigger base station type thing and it works as a low-powered desktop. Each of the larger devices it could plug into could have their own processors, RAM, batteries, etc and connect to a Bus port (like laptops have for docking stations) on the phone and take control of its storage and peripherals. I was thinking a scenario where a user would use it in 'phone mode' while walking around, 'tablet mode' while on the train or bus, 'laptop mode' at the coffee shop and then use it as a desktop when they get to work. The whole time working on the same document, emails, video conference, whatever, completely seamlessly (well, maybe a small break when switching what its plugged into). Of course to use it in other modes, you would have to carry along those devices. There is also the issue of applications not be suited for a smaller device, but you could hand off to a different version of itself, save its state and go into a sleep mode, or transfer processing to a server/cloud system. If done right, you could have a very wide variety of devices with different sized screens and different features to cater to different audiences while keeping the same UI. |