- Augusto is totally amazed by his iPhone’s capabilities:
- Is the iPhone a mirror device or a complimentary one?
- Can you go #iPadOnly without the iPhone?
When the iPhone launched in 2007, Clayton Christensen, the author of the ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’ - said the iPhone would fail, because it didn’t disrupt the cellular phones, it just made them better. We are quite certain that Mr. Christensen doesn’t want to be reminded of that comment. He corrected himself 5 years later when he said he didn’t realize the iPhone did disrupt something totally different - it disrupted portable computers.
This is what the iPhone really is. A portable computer that we have in our pocket at all times… and this computer also happens to be able to make a phone call.
Augusto is totally amazed by his iPhone’s capabilities:
“The iPhone brings more power than my first laptop, it is really an incredible world of possibilities in my pocket and it is exactly that which makes it a blessing or a curse depending on how much I can apply self-discipline and work with my own temptations.”
The iPhone is great, but Michael knows the iPad is not just a bigger iPhone:
‘Think about it for a moment. The iPhone came first. The iPad came later. When the iPad shipped, people were saying it was just a ‘bigger iPhone’ or ‘bigger iPod touch’. It’s true to the same extent that an Olympic swimming pool is just a ‘bigger Jacuzzi’.
The iPhone has become my perfect companion to my iPad and when I’m working #iPadOnly - it’s an indispensable device. Even when the iPad is my main machine, I continue to use my iPhone a lot as well.”
Is the iPhone a mirror device or a complimentary one?
We believe that the iPhone compliments the iPad. Many apps are universal and are optimized for both platforms. That’s why in most cases we install the same apps on the iPhone that we already have on the iPad. This way we can start our work on the iPad and continue on the iPhone when needed. However, you have to be careful with that - iPhone can serve as a real distractor because of (or thanks to) its power and app availability.
Here’s Augusto’s take on this problem:
‘There are many people that use their iPads without an iPhone, but I am much more aware of people with both devices. The reality is that the iPhone complements the iPad really well. So well in fact that it sometimes distracts me instead of pushing me to focus and accomplish more. It all depends how you design your workflows and which kinds of tasks you’re trying to get done on each device. As mentioned before, I purposefully decided not to configure email on my iPhone as I noticed I was checking it too frequently without actually processing it.
For me the iPad is my main machine and I have different apps on my iPad’s home screen than on my iPhone’s. The latter is here to mostly provide me with portable access to my information.”
Michael has a 50/30/20 rule:
“To give you an idea of how I work I invented a 50/30/20 rule, meaning I do 50% of my tasks only on the iPad and don’t even touch the iPhone for them (like writing and other ‘content creation’ tasks), 30% on both the iPhone and the iPad (like email and communication via FaceTime, Skype or iMessage) and 20% of the tasks only on the iPhone This includes taking pictures and recording videos, not to mention the old-school phone calls which can only be done on the iPhone. There are exceptions to this rule but this 50/30/20 is my own iPad-iPhone usage pattern.
I also have my iPhone and iPad home screens configured with practically the same apps. You might think this goes a little contrary to the above-mentioned rule but bear with me. It just gives me the convenience that whichever device I take, the same app appears in the same place so I don’t have to think where it is. I just tap away.”
Can you go #iPadOnly without the iPhone?
Some have tried, but as to most questions, the answer is ‘it depends on what you do’.
However, we believe it’d be really hard to do and won’t give you the same benefits we mention in this book. The power of having the same ecosystem on your main machine and on your phone is so amazing that to really be able to go #iPadOnly and be very productive you need to have both the iPhone and the iPad.