Leveraging a Smartphone as your Computing Device

I have always had an interest in the use of a single computing device that could be used in different ways. Cell Phones have become very powerful and are just as good as any low end laptop or desktop computer. Is it going backwards to have these solutions? Could someone just get a low cost Chromebook versus getting a laptop shell for your cell phone?

This company recently had a successful crowdfunding campaign called Superbook. The Phone Connects to the Laptop like shell via the MHL USB port. They also provide an application called ​​​​​​Andromium to give a laptop style feel to the user interface of Android.

My preference would be something that uses a wireless connection (Wifi etc.) to the phone instead of a wired solution.
​
Why would someone get this over a low cost laptop? First of all it is very low cost at about $150 with all the add-ons available. Secondly, they leverage both Android and Windows which seems to have good foundations for building an outstanding user experience. The other important factor here is the availability of cloud computing to store documents, videos and Photos. 

Here are two possible use cases for using this device:

1. Developing Country User - Someone in a developing country that can only afford a cell phone could use this device to get a full computing experience for editing documents and other tasks.

2. Corporate Professional - Most professionals get a laptop from work which is not wise to use for very personal things. This device could be used as a supplement with an existing smartphone to accomplish personal computing needs.

There are other use cases for this device but for now, lets start with those two and see how this plays out in time. There are several other options out there to convert a phone into a primary computing device. We will do some discussion on those in the next post on this topic.