A tested argument to why Folding Phones is the Future
It’s been a year since I bought my first Apple product: The iPad Pro 10.5 inch. And over time, it has become the most important computer in a house with a Laptop, Kindles and Android Smartphones. And here comes Folding phones, which begs the question: Have you ever wondered the possibilities of pairing a smartphone and a tablet?
Apple markets the iPad as the Laptop replacement. iPads are computers with Touch, but touch is not fundamentally better than a mouse pointer. As Steve Jobs pointed out while launching the first iPhone, touch is a variation to a mouse pointer. Both, allowing the user to simply point and interact with a dynamic surface.
In fact, a smartphone is better at replacing laptops for varied use cases, use cases that got shifted to smartphones due to its portability. Tablets are more portable than laptops but only within a house or office space, not exactly something you can take with you “on-the-go”. But what if you can? That’s the question Folding phones wants us to ask. Now only (a very near) future will truly tell us what that will lead to.
But the one benefit to folding phones that we always had and can explore today is: “It is the largest touchscreen you can comfortably hold.” Obviously, I am gonna try to answer this question from my experience with a 10.5 Inch iPad Pro: The Tablet which is the size of an A4 Sheet.
Which is the most important device to your consumption?
Instagram, Twitter, Blogs, News, eBooks, and even YouTube are vastly consumed on Smartphones. Perhaps, you consume more content on smartphones, than your TV or your laptop.
The iPad is just a bigger, handy and hence better device for the same behaviour. You can hold it like an A4 Sheet and read blogs, hold it like a picture frame and raid Instagram, and prop it up on any surface and let the videos play. My mom loves the iPad for she can look at vacation pictures in the same size as my childhood albums. I love reading books on the iPad as it’s so comfortable to leverage the various advantages of having your books digital: the all-important Search, multi-coloured Highlights, refer the Web, tap to see Word Meanings, etc. If you don’t read books, an iPad might be the best device to cultivate a habit.
An iPad simply offers a bigger screen and louder speakers over your phone. And that’s enough for it to be the king of consumption devices.
The iPad is where I browse most of the web, consume YouTube and most of my video content, read blogs and books, go on Twitter & see full-size Instagram pictures.
Which is the most social computer you own?
Smartphones are very personal, laptops are not exactly the easiest to carry to your family, roommates and colleagues. And none really invite multiple people to interact with the device. Smartphones are too small, and Laptops are designed to wrap around only one person.
iPad is the only mobile device which is social. It has a screen that can be shared and carried around. You can carry it around anywhere in your house and it’s big enough for me and roommate to browse furniture catalogues for our house. We view pictures from our last outing and catch up on our favourite web series. We don’t have a TV at our place, but if we did, we would be casting everything from my iPad. We already control our home speaker with the iPad, propped on a table usable at an arm’s length.
It is the most user-friendly device that can be shared.
I love the iPad because while I was reading about upcoming foldable phones on it, I opened the Notes app, propped it up on my “Home Bluetooth Keyboard” and started typing. Now when I am done, I can pick up my iPad, exit my study and move around, walk alone thinking with my article in my hand. Can’t do this with laptops! This is one of the use-cases for what convertible laptops were made for: Move around your house/office/factories with your work in your hand.
Why is everyone not buying Tablets?
An iPad is bigger than your phone, running the same OS. Hence, it is not bought so ubiquitously because simply it is not necessary for the average consumer. Phones work inside and outside the house and can do everything an iPad can do, at least for the average consumer. It cannot be a be-all, end-all replacement for laptops, in a world where we have a variety of laptops for video editing, gaming, designing, development, etc. And this is precisely why I bought the iPad last year, and not earlier in the decade since the first iPad was announced.
And so: “Why did I buy last year?” Because it is finally worth the price. With their Pro lineup, they finally built a device that will last for years to come and hence, justifies its price.
Apple has finally released a Tablet with a processor powerful enough to run without hiccups for at least 5 years, speakers that were good enough to not require Bluetooth speakers, and a pixel-invisible buttery-smooth 120Hz colour-accurate display. Put simply, this is a device that will serve me for at least 5 years without feeling outdated, which makes it value for money. But this kind of long term thinking is rare among masses and especially rare in a world where people throw away devices every 2 years.
I have been pairing an iPad with my Smartphone and it has been a delight.A separate device to house all binge consumption (and all distractions), while I keep the phone exclusively for productivity and communication. This has not only brought my phone addiction to a minimum but also improved my day-to-day computing experiences.
Is a bigger screen really a big deal?
Obviously, for pro-workflows like video-editing, photo editing, etc. a big screen is non-negotiable. But what about a mobile OS running on a bigger screen. Does a bigger screen really change what you can accomplish on a mobile OS?
Here’s my main argument:
When people look at products, they often look to buy solutions, not experiences. Whereas a product is a sum of experiences.
These experiences solve problems, and multiple experiences solve the same problem. But each experience offers something different, like in this case, a bigger, more immersive screen for content. This may not be a necessity, but a meaningful upgrade to current ways. Meaningful enough for people to fall in love with foldable phones even though they can’t afford it yet.
The smartphone is the first computer my mom ever used. When my mom shifted to the largest phone, affectively she felt she can accomplish more with a computer than previously thought, and has been using it considerably more. Perhaps, not a smartphone, but a Tablet is the ideal first computer. Not a PC replacement, but the first PC.
As the possibilities of A4 paper-sized touchscreens take centre stage into the public discourse, and with Apple & Microsoft offering more tablets in their lineup than ever, I won’t be surprised if people started opting for a Smartphone-and-Tablet combo for whence they can’t afford foldable phones yet.
I can only imagine how awesome folding phones would be when I won’t have to miss the iPad left behind at home.
I have exclusively focused on content consumption, as that is the most established use-case of a tablet. With the stylus, keyboard, and other peripherals, a lot of other utilities are being developed as people integrate these devices in their workflows. This is still a work in progress, and will only speak in favour of tablets. I will be writing another article on how the iPad integrates with my daily workflows.