Moto Promises More Laptop Docks for Phones

[JMcEntegart]

The Atrix family is anything but complete.

Moto Promises More Laptop Docks for Phones : Read more

 

[NapoleonDK]

I would like to see the phone used either as a trackpad or as a notifications window in the dock. I use an application called GMote with my phone, and I can tell you that I quickly adjusted to navigating and controlling my PC's cursor from the phone screen one-handed. It would be quite easy to slide the phone into the dock like a cartridge and use it like a trackpad. In fact, I was a bit surprised the I first saw the Atrix attached to the backside of its laptop dock!

I think that with the laptop form factor and the cartridge-style phone loading capability, you have the opportunity to dedicate a significant portion of the housing to battery capacity, speakers, full-size HDMI, webcam...the list goes on and on... We could easily see a whole new set of apps written for the laptop environment too, lets see OpenOffice, Ardour, GIMP, Blender, Pidgin, Firefox, Thunderbird all compiled for RISC/ARM 2Ghz Quads and Tegra 4...

There is literally nothing stopping this from happening. Heck it could be done be your average basement Linux enthusiast with a liters of Mt Dew Code Red and an industrial sack of Cool Ranch Doritoes!

 

[zkevwlu]

This is a bloody stupid idea from day 1... it's just about the most useless thing I have ever seen come out of the tech industry in quite some time now.

 

[NapoleonDK]

[citation][nom]zkevwlu[/nom]This is a bloody stupid idea from day 1... it's just about the most useless thing I have ever seen come out of the tech industry in quite some time now.[/citation]Why do you think that? It seems like most everyone I talk to uses their desktop for anything complex and their laptop for lightweight duty.

I don't see a downside to having a dock like this. You'd essentially have yourself a full linux environment with an nice 3G/4G data connection, and by the time it's properly polished you'll have better battery life and more performance than most sub-$500 notebooks out there in a device you already carry with you wherever you go anyway!

The only downside I see is that the smartphone environment moves so fast that people are upgrading their phones every 1 to 1 1/2 years. Lord knows the cell phone companies won't make their docks backwards compatible... =\

 

[Anomalyx]

It would have to be around $50 for me to even consider buying one, but I'm a cheapskate, so I'll say $100 would be a sane price. It's just a screen and keyboard for your phone... at it's current price of $500, I'd rather buy a regular laptop with an OS meant for a PC.

 

[Anomalyx]

[citation][nom]zkevwlu[/nom]This is a bloody stupid idea from day 1... it's just about the most useless thing I have ever seen come out of the tech industry in quite some time now.[/citation]
Finally someone who doesn't buy the hype! I agree. It's a screen and keyboard. Nothing more. I don't care to pay $500 for a screen and keyboard.
TIP: put an Apple logo on it, make it for iPhone, and suddenly the price will be "justified".

 

[NapoleonDK]

[citation][nom]Anomalyx[/nom]It would have to be around $50 for me to even consider buying one, but I'm a cheapskate, so I'll say $100 would be a sane price. It's just a screen and keyboard for your phone... at it's current price of $500, I'd rather buy a regular laptop with an OS meant for a PC.[/citation]I thought the dock was only $200... Anyway, I agree that the price would need to come down, and that you'd need a desktop OS. There is no way I would want Android on an 11" laptop screen. But if they gave me Ubuntu with 12-14 hours of heavy usage battery life, then we would have something! If we see a Quad-core Tegra 3/4 phone with a subsidized price of $150-200 and a badass Ubuntu-type dock for another $100, that would easily replace a $500 notebook. Plus you would see Linux desktop environments gain a huge dose of market penetration.

 

[NapoleonDK]

[citation][nom]Anomalyx[/nom]Finally someone who doesn't buy the hype! I agree. It's a screen and keyboard. Nothing more. I don't care to pay $500 for a screen and keyboard.TIP: put an Apple logo on it, make it for iPhone, and suddenly the price will be "justified".[/citation]Nobody would pay $500 for a screen and a keyboard, you're right. But I think I could certainly find some people who would pay $100 for something more than just a dock, something with a massive battery, HDMI, all the things I mentioned earlier...something that could turn their snazzy new Android phone into a full-sized mobile workstation. I would certainly want a desktop OS though, and Chrome OS WOULDN'T CUT IT!

 

[nukem950]

Didn't Palm attempt this years ago?

 

[virtualban]

This will be one of those things that will have enough success and customers to make it worth while. While not worth for most, it is not needed to be worth for most. As long as the few that use it will be satisfied, it will be alright. In a global scale, the "few" are in fact a lot.
Companies should do this more often, trying to satisfy the "few" into exactly what they need.
It's like: who needs a 6 core cpu of 1000$ when the cheaper 4 core of newer generation will do a better job. Ok, maybe this is not a perfect example, but still you get the point. As long as there are some people that find this solution useful, companies will make profit satisfying their customers. Listening to what customers demand and filling that in the supply is the way to go. With time and enough competition they will listen even to "make it cheaper" demands.

 

[virtualban]

[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]this is the Future. Imagine playing crysis on your mobile. Just add a keyboard I a mouse and, a large screen[/citation]
I want it projected into my retina and controlled via brain computer interface as a first step.
Hijacking my sensors in the path to the brain and full immersion as second step.
The holodeck is too expensive.

 

[fordry06]

[citation][nom]NapoleonDK[/nom]I thought the dock was only $200... Anyway, I agree that the price would need to come down, and that you'd need a desktop OS. There is no way I would want Android on an 11" laptop screen. But if they gave me Ubuntu with 12-14 hours of heavy usage battery life, then we would have something! If we see a Quad-core Tegra 3/4 phone with a subsidized price of $150-200 and a badass Ubuntu-type dock for another $100, that would easily replace a $500 notebook. Plus you would see Linux desktop environments gain a huge dose of market penetration.[/citation]

The dock is $500 at amazon. the phone has 2 operating systems on it, the android os for use as a phone and the desktop linux version for the laptop dock. That being said, at the current price, why wouldn't you just get a laptop separately and not have to use the phone to power you laptop? I have never seen why someone would want this setup at this price point.

 

[feeddagoat]

I don't car about multiple laptop docks apart from different screen sizes possibly or the ability to switch the battery for larger capacity or just as a replacement. the thing I'm most concerned about with getting this will be it "failing" and the atrix being the only phone that releases with docking feature. I guess a single standard for docking too would be nice, ie. if you don't like motorola phones you could get an HTC that shares the dock rather than have to fork out for another new one.

 

[randomstar]

Make a car dock ( 8 inch) to replace the head unit of your stereo, and a 12 inch or so netbook (not notebook) dock like this, and put windows phone 8 with windows "slim" 8 on there.. and I would buy the set for 1000 easy. all three parts including the phone, subsidized on Verizon with 4g, and a data plan appropriate to the use. the docks would both need extra storage, connectivity, and battery. I would so be on this -

 

[fir_ser]

At $500 this laptop dock is expensive, buying a netbook instead would be better. Other than this product is interesting especially if it has more than 10 hours of battery life.

 

[eddieroolz]

Certainly a different take on things that I praise Motorola for. Maybe the next step would be to make the phone integrate into the notebook shell, so its not just sitting there and limiting the screen angle.