Corporates will not put up with the checked laptops for long especially if they try to make it a blanket ban across the board. It would hurt business too much. My country already refused to follow the US and UK lead on this.
Do you mean that they don't want to replace the installed hardware base that often? That probably holds true for most bigger corporations across the globe, that would be too expensive for them. On the other side, my company (with ~150 employees) has a policy of replacing all the PCs every 3-4 years, mine was replaced last year even if it was still in full working condition and adeguate for my needs at work. I don't really know if this is a good idea: a positive side of this is that this way you reduce the possibility of failing hardware/repairs, maybe at the end this is a cheaper solution for my company.
The article is too pie in the sky. The industry will eventually get to that point but Corporates are not going to dump their entire laptop fleets overnight and replace them with a high end cellphones and docking stations. These phones do not have performance of a real Core i5 or i7 processor and the phone apps are still too gimped for full time use. For example, Excel on a tablet or phones can't handle add-ins or macros. It is ok for viewing but actually working on the data is an exercise in frustration.
I believe smartphones will eventually get there, pushed by the ever growing performance demands of the apps. As you already mentioned, laptops probably won't disappear: in my company too, laptops will be probably never replaced by a smartphone + docking station, since we often take them to meetings, where I believe a device with a full-sized keyboard is preferred by most of my coworkers to a smartphone. A clamshell PDA won't be an option too, since a pocket form-factor is not a requirement, while a full-sized keyboard is preferred.
I also wonder if tablets will continue to have their market in the future, alongside smartphones.
Varti
