20 2 / 2011

The Moto Atrix: the return of the consumer thin clients

Compaq EVO T20 thin client
Image via Wikipedia

Over half a year ago, when I first joined Quora, I answered a question titled: What is the future of mobile?

My prediction was:

Ten years from now, there will be no more PCs.

You’ll have a thin client mobile device that connects to your services and data over super high speed Internet access that is always on. The thin client can be your principle means of interacting with your services.

When you’re at home or at work, you’ll be able to dock your mobile thin client into a work station which will have a more expansive user configuration. Definitely a bigger screen, but it might not be a mouse or keyboard. Again, your key apps, services, and data would be connected from the cloud, through the thin client, to the workstation.
…
Who knows if the future will be supplied by Apple, Google, or some undreamed new enterprise.

Surprise, suprise. A glimpse of the future is actually supplied (not by Apple or Google), but my Motorola.

I remember talking about this up in a cab ride in Beijing, thinking this would likely be at least 3 to 5 years away, mainly because of the constraints of processor power, battery life, and even just the willpower to go ahead and do something like this.

But I was wrong. The Atrix smartphone package has 1Ghz dual core, coupled with an Nvidia Tegra 2 in the thin client. That’s not superpowerful, but it is a spoiler for what’s ahead. In a year or two, we are going to see devices powered by Qualcomm’s quad core chips with 2.5Ghz for each core.

And the Atrix essentially solves the problem of battery life since the thin client packs a battery as well. The thin client is essentially an extended life battery pack that recharges your phone while you work. As David Pogue puts it: “you’ll finally be able to get off of the plane with more battery life than when you got on!”

Right now, the Atrix is nowhere near a laptop nor a netbook. And I am willing to bet it will not even compare to an iPad in terms of usability. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Atrix gets a lukewarm reception upon arrival. What I am excited about, is the possibilities. Sure, the thin clients have never gotten much love, but I think that was largely due to the limited connectivity options available. With an always tethered device, and the mobile computing ecosystem of 2010 vs. 2007, what always felt like 5 to 10 years away, may be here by the time I graduate business school.

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