Size Limits and Power Utilization
The alerting function of modern smartphones imposes a physical size constraint on smartphones that cause the feature of the second optional display to be an attractive feature for modern smartphones. Today, there are many different kinds of mobile computing devices. Individual users select from the broad range of different mobile devices available, and purchase a collection of such devices that individually and collectively make sense.
Since many mobile devices have computers, significant amounts of memory, and displays, it is natural that multiple types of mobile devices may be able to access content or even create some content. Some of these mobile devices do not have the physical size constraints that smartphones have due to their alerting function. As mobile devices get larger, however, they become harder to carry around. The smartphone, being the smallest device that is capable of creating content, will therefore be the device that is easiest for the user to carry with them.
Thus, ensuring that the smartphone has sufficient ability to create the content that needs to be created when a worker is mobile remains important. Arguments that such content is better created on a small tablet or laptop computer are irrelevant when the mobile user has chosen to leave these larger devices in a hotel room or storage locker while they are at their most mobile.
The smartphone is not only small, but it should be turned on at all times, so that it may deliver alerts to the user as the alerts happen. Some of these alerts may contain news of significant events that require the user to take action in order to deal with the new development. Being able to create a wide range of content in response to these alerts is then an important part of the function of a smartphone.
It is also important to keep normal battery utilization low, however, since a smartphone should be turned on all the time, and should only require to be recharged when it is convenient for the user to perform this task. This is made most convenient by extending the battery life of the smartphone, but without increasing the size or weight of the smartphone.
The feature of the second optional display allows the size of the smartphone to remain almost as small as without the second display, and to keep battery utilization especially low when the optional display is not deployed. Even when the second display is deployed, modern smart phone displays are sufficiently low power that battery life will not be significantly reduced by the added power required to run the second display when it is deployed.