The Post-PC Environment

I was amused when I read in The Star (November 21, 2014, p 50) of a Malaysian reader griping about our obsession with mobile gadgets. He is in denial because like it or not – the smartphones and tablets are here to stay.

 

Particularly when mobile devices are getting faster and new capabilities are being added. In fact, he should know that the world is moving towards a post-PC environment. If he has read The Wall Street Journal (November 21-23, 2014, p 19), he would have learned that “early adopters” have started to discard their desktops and even laptops.

 

One of them is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide CEO Frits van Paasschen who has gone all mobile. This 53-year old executive is among a growing number of professionals to dump the PC and turning to smartphones and tablets as primary work tools. He is relying on his Apple iPhone and iPad for work at home and the office.

 

Even mobile apps at Starwood have moved beyond standard productivity tools like email and now include core enterprise apps built specially for mobile use.

 

The hotel operator’s “Room Cataloguing” app, created for global hotel associates who are usually on their feet helping guests, references 12 million data points about hotel rooms around the world, such as whether a room is close to an elevator, or has a full-length mirror. That data gets filed in a Starwood global reservation system. Now, if a guest wants that full-length mirror, Starwoord can quickly match them to the right room.

 

It’s that agility, van Paasschen says, that will pay dividends to Starwood, whose brands include Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels and St. Regis.

 

And companies such as Eli Lilly & Co have transitioned their entire sales team away from laptops and deploying 18,000 iPads to help improve the way salespeople interact with busy doctors.

 

Mike Meadows, Lilly’s vice-president and chief technology officer, said the conversion had boosted productivity since the salespeople no longer had to fumble with bulky computers and poor battery life.

 

Research firm Gartner Inc projected in July 2014 that the traditional PC market, both desktops and laptops, was on pace to shrink 6.7% this year, and 5.3% in 2015, based on the number of units shipped.

 

Smartphones and tablets, on the other hand, are expected to continue to grow.

 

I was in KL’s Jalan Tun Sambanthan 3 in Brickfields last evening. At the MIA Toastmasters meeting, I took up the role of an Evaluator for Jing Yi who gave a speech informing us about “coffee”. Generally, a good meeting and I have no complaints. I am giving it a 6 over 10 score.