Your Phone Is Now More Powerful Than Your PC

As a Gen Xer, I’ve seen the evolution of mobile computing technology first-hand, especially when it comes to increasing productivity at work. At the start of my career, I was one of the “lucky” employees issued a chunky notebook computer. Eventually, that was joined by a bulky cellphone. Over time, my laptops got sleeker, and my phones got smarter. My mobile computing arsenal converged and became simpler, lighter and more powerful — especially on the smartphone side.

Forget the oft-cited statistic that today’s smartphone is more powerful than the mainframe computer NASA used to send astronauts to the moon. Today’s smartphones are faster than the mid-80s Cray-2 Supercomputer, faster than the computer on board theOrion spaceship that NASA is currently testing to go to Mars and — perhaps most significantly — faster than the laptops most of us are carrying around.

We haven’t just reached a tipping point when it comes to the power in our primary computing devices — it’s already tipped.

Powering Mobility

Consider the Galaxy Note9 which we just unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event. With an Octacore processor using 10-nanometer semiconductor technology, not only does it have more raw processing power than many laptops, it tops them in most other specs, too.

For instance, the Note9 comes standard with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but we’re introducing a second configuration with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Both have a micro SD slot that allows you to expand storage up to 2TB — so you are future-proofed for the advent of even larger memory cards. To put that in perspective, our first Galaxy S smartphone released in 2010 had just 512MB of RAM, and 8GB or 16GB in total storage.

The Note9 features a Cat. 18 LTE modem that delivers faster connectivity than you’ll achieve on your laptop over most Wi-Fi networks, its 1440p screen is sharper than many laptops, and few laptops can come close to its all-day battery life.

Beyondthat are all of the smartphone features that most laptops lack:

§  Dual aperture cameras capable of recording up to 4K video

§  Biometric sensors for fingerprint, iris and facial authentication

§  An advanced stylus for natural writing, annotations and drawing

No More Compromises

It makes sense that smartphones should now serve as our primary computing devices. The performance gap between smartphones and laptops keeps widening, too, as users upgrade their smartphones at a faster rate than their notebook PCs. In other words, anything laptops can do, smartphones can already do better.

An estimated 4.3 billion smartphoneswere in use globally at the end of 2017, three times the number of PCs. The smartphone-using population will keep growing 9 percent per year and hit 7.2 billion by 2023.

Workers in every industry increasingly embrace and rely upon smartphones. According to GfK research commissioned by Samsung, mobile workers spend one third of their working day using their smartphone. When asked which computing device they would keep if required to pick just one, a plurality of 42 percent opted for the smartphone over desktops, laptops, tablets and other choices.

To say that we’re already living in the Next Mobile Economy doesn’t feel like hyperbole at all.

Not All the Same

Still, most smartphones are better geared towards consuming content than generating it. When it comes to creating reports or other sophisticated work tasks, nothing matches the Galaxy Note, especially our latest iteration, the Note9.

Take the S Pen. This stylus has long taken mobile productivity tothe next level. With the Note9, we’ve made the single largest upgrade to the S Pen, imbuing it with powerful remote control capabilities. Walk into a corporate presentation with confidence, connect your Note9 to a large screen display, and drive the PowerPoint presentation with the click of the S Pen.

Forget Your Laptop — on Purpose

At Samsung, we’re driving forward the convergence of PC and phone via our Samsung DeX platform.

Built into our latest flagship phones, Samsung DeX enables mobile workers to leave the laptop at home while staying productive and secure. Users can turn any space into a workspace by connecting to a monitor,keyboard and mouse. DeX delivers an intuitive desktop experience that’s optimized for your productivity apps, with all the core functionality like multiple, resizable windows, keyboard shortcuts and drag-and-drop with your mouse.

Samsung DeX offers an exciting opportunity for enterprises wanting to leverage the power of smartphones to move to a mobile-only computing strategy.

A Long-Term Mobile Strategy

Giventhe power of today’s smartphones and their critical importance to workforceproductivity, why do so many organizations still rely on BYOD strategies? From my conversations with enterprises IT leaders, in many cases BYOD has been motivated by short-term cost saving, rather than a long-term view of mobile as a business value driver. I’m firmly of the belief that proactively investing in mobile pays off.

Our recent study with OxfordEconomics sought to put hard data against the BYOD or corporate-issued debate. The study looked at the totality of mobile investments made by the enterprise — from the device and carrier connectivity, to in-house management overheads, outsourcing, MDM software and employee mobile stipends. It turns out, the device is just a small part of the equation, and BYOD represents a saving of just 11percent compared with providing devices to employees.

But when it comes to the perceived business value delivered by mobile, the study found BYOD companies are the least satisfied. Senior IT and business leaders surveyed were less happy with how BYOD supports collaboration and communication, access to work-critical information and the performance of everyday business responsibilities.

Whileeach organization has different needs, there is a clear need for CIOs and other business leaders to look long-term and view mobile as a core productivity and revenue driver.

As for employees and other end users: if you’re not sure whether it’s time to upgrade your smartphone, consider how much you rely on it to get things done quickly and securely. You’ll probably realize how much it’s already replaced your desktop or laptop PC and become your primary computing device.

Youowe it to yourself and your colleagues to have the best tools for powerful, on-the-go connectivity. With the Note9, the even more seamless DeX experience, and enhanced S Pen capabilities, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

To learn more about how your enterprise can maximize mobile ROI, download the OxfordEconomics report, a comprehensive study based on a survey of 500 senior IT leaders, looking at the total cost of mobile and which organizations are benefiting the most from mobile workflows.