A smartphone is all that’s needed for most people’s email

As technologists we have an expectation that email is something that needs a PC to really do it justice. Historically, email has always been on PCs — although I remember as a kid my dad using a 3270 terminal to access email on a mainframe at his work.

At low-scale, email is helpful for receiving notifications from service providers (social networking services, e-commerce services, etc), and also receiving short-form messages and photos from friends and family. None of that requires a PC.

In rea...