Android Ready To Be PC Free

I'm going to make this call.  I think in 2012, we will see a lot more companies come out with docks that would allow their Androids to work as sort of workstations, albeit portable workstations like netbooks.  I know netbooks are small but maybe mini-netbooks.

Atrix is a prime example of where things could be headed.  And I wager that Google could be priming Android for just such a duty.  Don't think so?

Think about it.  Steve Jobs declared we are in the post-PC era.  Whether Microsoft agrees or not (not that there is much they can do about it in the short-term - no Windows 8 and all, no word if Mango is selling well), mobile is now where the computing action is.  It's where its been more competitive than the PC market has been for more than a decade.

And while Android tablets have not claimed the market from the iPad, Android makers, specifically Google-Motorola, should concentrate on where they are the strongest.  Smartphones, dozens if not hundreds of models, fuel the 1 million or so activations a day.

So, like the Atrix, why not add a simple docking station that allows Android users to do more?  It really depends on how Atrix 2 is going to perform.  The docking station cannot be too expensive.  And it has to feel like it was made as an afterthough.  Let's face it, the first Lapdock just feels cheap.

However, from what I'm seeing with the second generation Lapdocks from Motorola - Atrix and Bionic, they look very well designed.

So, expect more of this to come to the Android market.  And expect this to really hurt the PC market hard in the next few years.