Why do so many people talk about workflow when talking about what phone/tablet/laptop to buy

mrochester · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:14

...workflow when talking about what phone/tablet/laptop to buy? I’ve never ever met a single person ever who buys a phone/tablet/laptop for any sort of ‘workflow’. They buy them to browse the net, sent texts, make phone calls, take photos, send emails etc.

Is ‘workflow’ one of those memes that make people sound more important or professional than they really are?

M.

Diddums · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:17

Yes, that's exactly it. See also Surface ads.

Hyburnate · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:20

My setup certainly aids me.

I’d love to calculate the hours I’ve saved by the likes of hand off over my Apple devices. Lack of distractions because I can answer my text messages on my laptop rather than get sidetracked with other notifications. The ability to FaceTime onsite engineers to diagnose issues.

My choice in hardware has aided me hugely in making my workflow seamless.

mrochester · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:20

Diddums said:
Yes, that's exactly it. See also Surface ads.

It’s on the back of people talking about their ‘workflow’ when talking about the new surface go that I made this post. The surface laptop ads are particularly ‘out of touch’ it seems.

Efour · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:21

Productivity and Workflow. Buzzwords of aholes.

spoffle · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:29

I bought an iPad pro to aid in my work flow. I can send vectors to and from my iPad via illustrator so that I can make adjustments or whatever I need to do.

peterwalkley · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:35

To justify the company buying it instead of dipping into their own pockets ?

Slam · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:39

I must try this! Add a topping of cost benefit analysis and ta da instant gadget

Housey · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:57

Because it's coming home?

BuffetSlayer · 10 Jul 2018 at 21:07

Thread is dead to me without someone smarter than me making an inspired queen wasp comment.

jpaul · 10 Jul 2018 at 21:11

Housey said:
Because it's coming home?

Does the England manager have a surface pro then. .. you'll have to spell it out

I think those surface adds are an example of MS imposing USA adverts , precocious wannabees - vloggers and graphic artists.
maybe a surface is a point solution for a mobile warrior, but give me a >27" monitor, access to a computing farm, with a decent editor/Ms-office access/virtual access to linux etc

Pawnless Endgame · 10 Jul 2018 at 21:15

Efour said:
Productivity and Workflow. Buzzwords of aholes.

This.

What's wrong with using the word 'progress'? How much work you do and how smart you go about your work is called progress imo. The computer is a tool to help you. It computes for you e.g. equations in Excel.

McGraw · 10 Jul 2018 at 21:34

I do a bit of photography and the path from taking a photo to a final image is definitely called workflow and a decent tablet can definitely help with this.

I'm sure video editing is the same.

Just because most people don't recognise it doesn't mean hardware/software companies can't talk about it to sell to pros or to make laypeople consider the hardware more desirable.

My phone is essential to me as part of my job on the road.

peterwalkley · 10 Jul 2018 at 22:59

BuffetSlayer said:
Thread is dead to me without someone smarter than me making an inspired queen wasp comment.

We've got buzzwords. Does that count ?

Rimsy · 10 Jul 2018 at 23:21

Workflow is hardly a new term... Pretty much anyone involved in any sort of 3d/2d digital art for the past 25 years will be familiar with it.
People using the term for the ease at which their iDevice takes photos and allows them to view them on their other iDevice before uploading to social media should arguably be shot though.

Hyburnate · 10 Jul 2018 at 23:39

Rimsy said:
Workflow is hardly a new term... Pretty much anyone involved in any sort of 3d/2d digital art for the past 25 years will be familiar with it.
People using the term for the ease at which their iDevice takes photos and allows them to view them on their other iDevice before uploading to social media should arguably be shot though.

I mean to be fair, I don't know of anyone who would take a photo on say an iPad and then upload via an iPhone when both devices offer both functionalities.

Although I have before screenshotted something on my phone and subsequently uploaded it to a live chat on my laptop through the iCloud sync... Not sure if that should make me be shot

Jambo · 11 Jul 2018 at 00:25

Never heard it before.

Efour · 11 Jul 2018 at 06:12

Hyburnate said:
I mean to be fair, I don't know of anyone who would take a photo on say an iPad and then upload via an iPhone when both devices offer both functionalities.

Although I have before screenshotted something on my phone and subsequently uploaded it to a live chat on my laptop through the iCloud sync... Not sure if that should make me be shot

well i do the same with google photos app or whatever it called but i wouldn't call myself a productive workflow genius

Ayahuasca · 11 Jul 2018 at 07:00

Microsoft’s marketing on the surface devices has given them incredible sales figures, quite astonishing considering poor warranty and fairly high rates of failure on devices that are overpriced for the spec.

jpaul · 11 Jul 2018 at 09:06

Ayahuasca said:
Microsoft’s marketing on the surface devices has given them incredible sales figures, quite astonishing considering poor warranty and fairly high rates of failure on devices that are overpriced for the spec.

do you have some particular links for sales/penetration vs others ?

(Did a trial from ms 5 years ago £339sp2 and sent it back insufficient power, flexibility , not good vfm .. just stylus was good)