...is a very good question.
With Apple becoming the world's most valuable company, orgs like Google (about as "e-brick" and "cloud-mortar" as they come) purchasing long established mega-corporate names such as Motorola, and Facebook debuting as the new hundred billion dollar IPO, it is safe to say the dot-com bust of a decade ago has come full circle. These prime examples, and many more, owe their corporate renaissance to one word: mobile.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this, is not just that the success of these companies hinges on the success of mobile computing, but that mobile computing itself has yet to find its lynchpin of success, and is ultimately an extremely large gamble (with little supporting evidence to date, beyond "...but, oh, it will!" ).
That being said, we're well beyond the dawn of mobile technology (iPad 3, Droid 4.x, and even Microsoft has brought its behemoth resources into the mix with Windows 8) and, baring some major catastrophe that would make "all the bluetooths disappear from the atmosphere", mobile computing is here to stay; so we might as well take advantage of it. But...should you?
There are some very important, basic questions to ask yourself before making the untethered plunge.
Is there an element specific to mobile computing that actually benefits you? Now, I know how you feel; I feel it too. You see the teaser ads, and count down the days to launch. All the time secretly saying to yourself, "...this device! This device will be the one that changes my life; no more laundry, double the salary, and trips to the fridge for caffeinated beverages will finally be meaningful!" Although I have felt this way every single time, with every single new device launch; it is rooted in nothing. The universal truth to new technology always seems to be: the more 'mythic' the hype; the more 'myth' the result.
Some natural aspects of mobile computing, though, actually do genuinely benefit and improve some (not all) technotility. The ability to capture electronic signature without any additional peripherals, for example, is huge for transportation, merchant, service, and other industries. GPS and location services help not only businesses, but also individual travelers practically anywhere on the planet (usually at no added cost!). Having a camera in the palm of your hand that is connected to every other user and device on the Internet at any given moment has revolutionized the way humans connect and interact in unprecedented ways. These are changes so significant, that they are no longer considered "hip" or "trendy"; they are the way we all live, from Manhattan to Mumbai, rich to poor, young to old.
Does what you're trying to accomplish require little data input? Granted - half the phones out there today have a 'keyboard'; try writing a paper on it. Better yet, try writing an e-mail on a 'virtual keyboard'. "Yoda well send lake these" (You will sound like this) in no time flat. There has been no shortage of ingenuity to attempt to overcome this major drawback, and even Apple recognizes it as such an "Achilles' Heel" that they have invested their money in dictation software - ignoring the problem altogether! This is something that is not likely to change any time soon.
Many enterprising individuals have taken this into consideration; designing apps with mostly 'dropdown lists', 'selectable options', and other attempts at being intuitive as to what you are ultimately trying to accomplish (and both removing/limiting the effort involved). And these attempts work great, but they tend to have very limited use and scope.
Is what you're trying to accomplish 'linear'? As annoying as scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling some more can be - it's actually something mobile devices do extremely well! It would be annoying to have to side-scroll all the time to view a Web site, but to swipe a finger every minute or so to advance to the next section takes no effort at all; and probably does less ergonomic damage than leaving your wrist pinching your nerves left and right on your mouse.
The downside of this is that not everything works well in a linear fashion. E-mail, text, forms and pages tend to work well scrolling ad infinitum; spreadsheets do not. Spreadsheets are very important tools (just ask someone who uses them... ), and tends to be where the phrase "bigger is better" finds a comfortable home.
There are more considerations to take into account as well, and certainly more will be forthcoming as time goes on. The more "yes's" you can rack up, the better the decision to 'mobilize' will be. As for me, I still tend to find comfort in the 'hybrid' solutions, such as:
