Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

(Column) - In many ways, the concept of going from the confident posture of using an OS on a desktop to a mobile platform is going to be a seriously difficult switch for many, I suspect. Considering this is a goal that mobile developers would love to see happen within the next few years, I'd say they most certainly have their work cut out for them.

Considering the Habit Factor. Personally, many of us really need to consider the fact that most people are creatures of habit. They are quite frankly used to a specific way of doing things, and to maintain the expectation that people are going to be willing to "go mobile" to the point of giving up their traditional means of computing is honestly ludicrous.

Seriously, just watch the average person try to successfully operate their mobile phone's advanced features sometime. Oh sure, the teen and 20-something crowd have a good handle on this task perhaps, but try the same thing with the bread winner of that family sometime, I think that you'd be shocked at how confused they get over this type of thing.

Even with the casual user apparently being skipped over completely, at least the mobile world has done a nice job at meeting most of the needs when it comes to the business user, right? In some ways, yes. But in other ways...

Pocket PC and Other Mobile Platforms. When we first look at platforms like the Pocket PC, the need for using this platform is fairly well illustrated: allow the user to remain connected with the office even if they are not able to "sync up" with the office in the traditional sense.

Mobile e-mail, calendar and contacts - it's all there. But the Pocket PC takes this one step further by allowing the user to create and edit Microsoft Office documents, review a PowerPoint presentation and so on. In short, it's almost as valuable enough to back away from traditional PC usage, right? Not so fast.

Even as mobile companies continue to push us into believing the "need" to be connected all the time, there is one serious question that you ought to be asking yourself - is the mobile platform being offered really a substitute for the comfort of a standard keyboard and mouse? Exactly, I thought not. Realistically, no one is their right mind is going to be down for giving up that level of comfort that the traditional keyboard can offer.

Seriously, have you ever tried to write an article on a Pocket PC? It's difficult at best and rather educational at the same time, I think. Long story short, I think that I'll be sticking to the traditional route of using a regular keyboard for my daily tasks, thank you very much. Well, at least for the time being that is.

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