Technology

Perhaps the only thing that a cellular phone cannot do nowadays is light a cigarette.  Cellphones have become the Swiss knives of technology since its inception in the late 1980s.  Before, cell phones were too large to be carried around because of their batteries that were the size of car batteries.  Other than being too large, they were also too expensive for an average individual.  As silicon technology advanced, micro chips and processors became smaller and smaller and Cellphones with them.  These communication devices are, after all, highly dependent on the capacities of micro-chips and processors.  Whats more cellular phones are getting cheaper and cheaper because of more practical and less expensive software.  For instance, Android is a fully open, customizable OS that could help cellular operators differentiate their service propositions while lowering the cost of innovative devices. (Conti, 2008)  Cellphones are likely to replace personal computers in the near future because they have successfully replaced most of the functions that personal computers are used for, namely, internet access and communication, digital storage, and entertainment.

While some groups argue that cellular phones cannot replace personal computers because of the ease that computers offer for certain processes such as word processing and spreadsheet operation, these groups can easily be disputed because while personal computers do sport the more convenient full sized keyboards, most cellular phones nowadays offer the option of purchasing a separate wireless keyboard or mouse while the phone itself is used to stand in as a monitor.  Other than these wireless keyboards, some phone units have an accessory that is able to produce a virtual keyboard through infrared on a flat surface making these minute communication devices into mini computers.

Personal computers are mostly used for access to the internet and fast communication via the World Wide Web but Cellphones offer these plus more.  Cellular phones are able to access the Wi-Fi network, use the digital communication hardware, as well as the over-the-air high-speed network (HSPDA) to access the World Wide Web and perform the exact same functions offered in a conventional computer.  Verizon for instance, is partnering with Google to develop a family of wireless devices -- phones, applications and services -- that marry the power of the Internet with Verizons 3G wireless networks. (Cauley, 2008)  Aside from this, Cellphones are also able to make regular digital calls which are by far, clearer than calls made via VoIP or personal computers messenger functions.  Whats more encouraging is that even when cellular phones can already have the ability to place calls via the cellular phone network these are also able to make VoIP calls like a real computer does.  Cellular phones are also a more portable alternative to laptops that although have become smaller and thinner through the years, could still not fit in the palm of your hand or the shirt pocket like cellular phones could.  More advanced cellular phones also offer email downloading, sending, and digital data uploading and downloading directly from the internet.  Young people who use personal computers for certain services are even now turning to cellular phones as an alternative, Teens are heavy users of new communication forms such as instant messaging, e-mail, and text messaging, as well as communication-oriented Internet sites such as blogs, social networking, photo and video sharing sites such as YouTube, interactive video games, and virtual reality environments, such as Second Life. (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008, p. 3)  As proof of the capacity of the cellular network to compete with the widely used optic system of personal computers for internet access, in some countries, small USB devices known as internet jacks like SMART BRO (Smart Communications, 2010) and GLOBE Tattoo (Globe Telecom, 2010) are being sold as accessory attachments to laptops and personal computers enabling these devices to access the same network that cellular phones access for internet connection.  These devices even claim to be ten to fifteen times faster than regular DSL connections.  When it comes to convenience, the average person would most likely opt to have a smart cellular phone with the same functions as a personal computer over the latter because aside from the cheaper price, cellular phones can offer other fringe benefits that a personal computer cannot.  This represents the obvious overtaking of cellular phone technology over regular personal computing technology.  Cellular phone software that would make these gadgets exactly the way computers are also by far, cheaper in license purchasing compared to the desktop versions of the software.  So, in terms of fast communication, cellular phones only need that they be taken out of the pocket for one to send an email, while more effort is required in booting a personal computer or a laptop.  Cellular phones boast of faster communications on the go.

Another aspect to be considered when comparing cellular phones with personal computers in terms of how these minute gadgets will eventually replace the Jurassic-sized personal computers is their storage capacity. (Jaylin, 2010)      The more advanced Cellphones nowadays are able to store up to 48 gigabytes of information.  (Jaylin, 2010)  This is even more than the average laptop of the late 90s can store.  Of course, it cannot be denied that personal computers are able to store even more but the fact remains that people do not really need gargantuan storage capacities nowadays because data is formatted, reformatted, and reinvented to become smaller and smaller.  The smaller a piece of binary data is, the better it becomes in terms of computing.  Both cellular phones and personal computers boast of the capacity to expand already existing storage space, but cellular phones are more generic in this sense as thousands of data cards are compatible with cellular phones, (Jaylin, 2010)   while only a handful of companies manufacture extra memory for personal computers, especially laptops which have permanent storage space amounts.  What is more disconcerting about personal computers is the fact that extra storage also has to be compatible with the units mother board which becomes obsolete every three or so years.  This means that while storage is available there is no main processing unit that will accommodate this storage and so a personal computer owner will have to overhaul the entire unit just to accommodate additional storage space.  Cellular phones are now designed with storage capacities that are more than an average person needs.  If each piece of music has an average length of 5 minutes, this means that a person living to 100 years will have to listen to 10,512,000 in his lifetime if he was to spend his entire lifetime listening to music only nowadays, cellular phones are able to store from 10 to 40 thousand songs, which represents about 3 if the total number of songs one will listen to in 100 years  if one did it without any pauses in between  this means that with a cellular phone, and if one wanted to listen to music only, the storage capacity will already have one spending a fourth of his life listening to music  Now, this is quite an amazing amount of storage for a device that fits in the palm of your hand.  In addition to this, technology is now being developed so that software need not be stored in your device, which all the more saves the storages spaces in cellular devices.  Whether you call it software on demand or software as a service, the idea is the same You use software on the Web instead of installing it on your hard drives, and you pay as you go. (Dahl, 2008, p. 28)  So, in terms of storage capacity, cellular phones par with personal computers and even exceed them is some aspects.

Finally, the final reason that cellular phones would eventually overtake personal computer development is because all forms of entertainment can now be had with cellular phones.  One can watch movies, listen to music, and play games on the cellular phone much like one does in movie theatres or in their own residential entertainment systems.  What gives cellular phones a head start when compared to personal computers is the fact that all these entertainment capabilities are portable.  One does not have to fuss over connecting cords, control wires, complicated A-V settings and the like, because cellular phones offer everything built into the unit.  One can have hours of entertainment through a cellular phone and not worry about electrical disturbances for as long as the batteries are fully charged.  The ease at which entertainment can be accessed through the cellular phone by far exceeds that of personal computers, this is the reason why the highly advanced phones are considered smart phones or mini-computing devices.

With the current trend, evidence simply proves that given a few more years, cellular phones are set to overtake the development and use of personal computers.  This can easily be seen in the way cellular phones are able to mimic their gargantuan counterparts in terms of communication, storage and entertainment.