A key theme at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show CES 2008 was that mobile computing - especially in the form of mobile smartphones - was set to become the key computing platform, especially in many parts of the developing world where it is expected to be the *only* computing platform for some time as new users flood online in the millions.

Two key reasons for this shift from computing on the desktop with a desktop and computing in hand with a handheld device are simple convenience and cost.

Business users are often “on the go” and need to carry their computing with them. Laptops offer some mobility but for most business users a small mobile phone now offers most of what they need and allows them to carry their computer throughout the day. Laptop and desktop computing are certainly not going to stop, but already we see even heavy users shifting to mobile devices and mobile or hybrid platforms like Twitter to carry on their daily business. There will be modest growth in the use of ultra mobile computers like the inexpensive eee PC, but the huge growth is likely to come in the form of mobile smartphones.

Coming up later: Battle for the new smartphone operating systems