The smartphones, including the iPhone, cannot become the next computing platform because they're too small, too easily broken, too easily lost according to John Dvorak at PC Magazine . Putting so much important data on something that's so easily flushed down the toilet is a problem.

Platforms exist because they serve some many people so well in so many ways. The desktop computer is easy to upgrade, has versatile displays, is powerful, hard(er) to steal, has a wealth of input devices, is easy to type on and easy to fix, Mr. Dvorak noted.

The only advantage a notebook computer has over a dektop is its portability. As a result, Mr. Dvorak finds it had to believe that someone would replace the tried and true desktop with a next generation computing platform, the iPhone and other smartphones. "And what if it does? What are folks going to do when they spill coffee on their iPhones?" Mr. Dvorak asked. "They've already done a lot worse--they drop them into toilets over and over. PodShow's Adam Curry lamented having this happen to him, as did Leo Laporte on a TWiT podcast."

Mr. Dvorak didn't deny that smartphones are a trend in computing. However, the suggestion that the next new platform will replace the older platform unnerved him. "I'm just saying that this is not a train I'm ready to ride. I use laptops when I travel, and that's that. I'm not dragging a laptop to work and home and back again, with the thing bouncing around in the car. That's crazy. If I want my data to be that portable, I'll load it on my Corsair 32GB thumb drive, and that will be that," he concluded.

Mr. Dvorak has some good points about human ergonomics and data security. Even so, that doesn't mean that the third great platform needs to replace the first two -- just augment them.