PC Era Forecasted To End In 18 Months 449
dcblogs writes "In a historic shift, shipments of smartphones, tablets and other app-enabled devices will overtake PC shipments in the next 18 months, an event that may signify the end of the PC-centric era, market research firm IDC said. IDC said worldwide shipments this year of app-enabled devices, which include smartphones and media tablets such as the iPad, will reach 284 million. In 2011, makers will ship 377 million of these devices, and in 2012, the number will reach 462 million shipments, exceeding PC shipments. In 2012, there will be 448 million PC shipments. One shipment equals one device. PC sales will continue to climb, but will no longer rule."
Oh happy day (Score:5, Funny)
Likely the beginning of the Year of Linux on the desktop as well.
Hype (Score:3)
First, the report talks about devices sold, not the installed base, in which PCs will have a very big lead for the foreseeable future. Phones have long sold better than PCs. Also, do you know anyone that just uses smartphones and tablets but never PCs or laptops? Didn't think so.
Re:Hype (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hype (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Hype (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you.
Of course non-PC devices are selling faster than PC's right now. Almost everyone already has a PC, so there isn't a large group going out in the same time period to buy one. The same can't be said about tablets and smartphones.
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Almost everyone already has a PC, so there isn't a large group going out in the same time period to buy one.
And for people who live alone in their parent's garage, that's all that needs to be said, but for families (which are actually a fairly large segment of the population, outside of geekdom), there's another factor, which is that while before, they may have needed several PCs, now they may be able to get by with one PC and several tablets and/or smartphones. So there may well be a decrease in PC use, even if it won't affect anyone on slashdot.
Another factor is that after the public reaction to Vista, MS was
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I really tire of these slanted news articles that crumble with the slightest application of common sense.
At least all the yammering about "the cloud" seems to have decreased. I thought they'd never shut up about how computers were going to disappear completely. And it's been a while since I heard anyone proclaim that games were completely dead and downloadable content on the wii was going to be the only thing you'd be able to buy in a month.
Re:Hype (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yes, because your garage is indicative of everyone's. Also, children have bikes and no cars.
And unlike your example, this is a changing tend and not just a snapshot of a mostly static relationship. The smart phone and tablet are rising and seems poised to eclipse the PC. This isn't terribly surprising to most people, but I fully expect Slashdot to completely miss the significance of this. Even once the PC is dethroned, the stereotypical slashdotter will still live and die by theirs.
It's also important to no
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And no consideration of how many of those devices are new users compared to existing users just upgrading to the next version. Maybe the typical lifetime of these devices is shorter than a PC. PC's are typically upgradeable where these devices are usually just the package deal, so not every PC user looking to expand their capabilities need buy a new PC.
Besides, there's not even netcraft confirmation! Clear proof the PC is not dying.
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Yeah, yeah.
Laptops have been selling better than desktops for about 3 years now, but it hasn't killed the desktop usefulness. Likewise I doubt phones or tablets can replace the need for desktops.
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Also, do you know anyone that just uses smartphones and tablets but never PCs or laptops? Didn't think so.
I come damned close, though, in my personal life. At work, I have to use a keyboard to get anything done (though conceivably, I could use an iPad connected to a bluetooth keyboard.) Most of my computer use at home is fairly light and based on consuming content, and as such, an iPad is perfect except for two little problems:
1) The iPad currently requires the use of a computer at least once (to activate) and any time you want to back it up. I think this will eventually be addressed, but it hasn't been high
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Looks like CmdrTaco has gone full retard today. The OMG KDE IS DIEING story, and this?
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Re:Hype (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot makes this same mistake every single time a story like this goes on the front page. Every time.
The report is from a marketing firm. Their audience is other marketing types who make reports to business types. That lot is concerned about growth because growth is where they can make money. Selling things in markets that are growing faster than competition can enter, which means profit margins can stay comfortably high.
Once growth falls off and capacity catches up, things get competitive. Margins dwindle and the kinds of companies that pay people to read marketing reports can no longer survive.
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Re:Hype (Score:4, Funny)
Although, toilet paper is probably more ubiquitous than PCs.
And this is surprising how? Everyone knows that populated PCBs really chafe, even with SMT components only.
Re:Hype (Score:4, Interesting)
My last phone cost $590.00
My last laptop was $750.00
My last PC , Quad Core i5 with 8 gig ram... was $699.99
PC is a bigger investment? It's less than 20% more than the freaking phone if you buy the phone at the cheapest rate, It's 1/2 the price of the phone if you are dumb and subsidize it through the cellphone carrier. iPhone though AT&T is $299+$1500.00 over the next 2 years.
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PCs are a commodity market. You generally get what you pay for. The average PC sold in the USA last year cost just over $500, and the profit margins were razor thin.
Smart phones have artificially high prices. They are kept high, particularly in the USA, Canada, and other countries in which phones are subsidized by telecom companies (and these artificial prices affect the international price as well). They do this to maintain the illusion that a subsidized phone is a stellar deal, which in fact, not so much.
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I think in Apple's case the newer iPods were opened to discover that much of the iPhone internals were there.
Differing types of users? (Score:3)
My monthly internet and phone costs are amazingly similar, actually. Wtihin $10. $70 for cell phone, $70 for home phone/internet
I'd be more willing to buy unsubsidized phones if the phone companies were willing to give me unsubsidized connection plans.
One thing to remember is that just because the low end of one market overlaps the high end of another, doesn't mean that you're going to get all that many people who buy cheap for one and expensive for the other.
Not many are going to buy a $30k Motorcycle an
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I don't understand. They make their old hardware "obsolete" by rapidly advancing the state of the art, and this is a bad thing? The alternative would be to keep the iPhone 4 roughly similar to the original iPhone, which makes absolutely zero sense.
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Just because something changes from #1 to #2 doesn't mean that the era is at an end.
Compare to radio stations - they are around and kicking even though TV, video and the internet has come.
And someone that buys a phone/pad or whatever probably already has a PC.
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I suppose that when they say "The era of X is over" they mean the era when X *is dominant* is over. They're not saying X will be no more. Yes, we still have radio, but it is no longer our primary means of receiving entertainment and news. (and hasn't been for quite a while). ...Or they're just finding a way to spin some numbers to make it dramatic.
Re:Oh happy day (Score:4, Insightful)
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Right.. I feel like complaining about the fact that smart phones and ipads etc. ARE personal computers.. but then someone will punch me in the face.
I'm not sure if this is the earliest example, but I had one of these babies and I might be biased...
http://www.playretro.co.uk/hardware/sinclair_zx_spectrum_box.jpg [playretro.co.uk]
Computers vs. appliances (Score:3, Insightful)
Right.. I feel like complaining about the fact that smart phones and ipads etc. ARE personal computers
If applications for a computing device need the device manufacturer's approval before they will run, I call the device an "appliance", not a computer. For example, Apple iDevices are appliances. So are video game consoles and Android phones on AT&T. On the other hand, other Android devices are computers, as are Nokia N900 phones and desktop and laptop PCs.
Re:Oh happy day (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get your hopes up. They're talking about shipments, not installed base.
People pretty much stopped buying new PCs once they had a Core 2 Duo or faster. It isn't that no one is using PCs anymore, it's that no one is buying a new one because the old one is still plenty fast.
Incidentally, you can expect the same thing to happen in phones in a couple of years. Once you have a phone which is fast enough to play video and has a battery that lasts all day, the biggest improvements are going to come as software update and you won't care about the hardware any more than you currently care whether you have a 2.6GHz CPU vs. a 3GHz CPU -- both are fast enough to do whatever so nobody cares anymore.
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Once you have a phone which is fast enough to play video and has a battery that lasts all day, the biggest improvements are going to come as software update and you won't care about the hardware any more than you currently care whether you have a 2.6GHz CPU vs. a 3GHz CPU -- both are fast enough to do whatever so nobody cares anymore.
Except that wireless providers are historically terrible at providing software updates. Apple bucked this trend a bit, and some Android phones have gotten one or two updates. Carriers are still the gatekeepers for the vast majority of phones, though. They want to sell new hardware, not provide new software.
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Once you have a phone which is fast enough to play video and has a battery that lasts all day, the biggest improvements are going to come as software update and you won't care about the hardware any more than you currently care whether you have a 2.6GHz CPU vs. a 3GHz CPU -- both are fast enough to do whatever so nobody cares anymore.
Except that wireless providers are historically terrible at providing software updates. Apple bucked this trend a bit, and some Android phones have gotten one or two updates. Carriers are still the gatekeepers for the vast majority of phones, though. They want to sell new hardware, not provide new software.
All hope is not lost. If you have an Android phone it's only a matter of time before you root your handset go for a aftermarket ROM - probably when your warranty runs out in 12 months. Ironically the community builds of Android are often highly stable and usable sometimes less buggy than carrier software, and you get the latest and greatest features and performance. I have a HTC Magic running Android 2.2, this is hardware that was abandonded by HTC in late 2009 with no further than version 1.6, and it runs
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And World Community Grid.
Just sayin...
-l
/IF, it happens at all. My PC makes a great space heater that saves humanity, even if nothing else.
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This will probably mean the end of Microsoft as well. Likely the beginning of the Year of Linux on the desktop as well.
I'm feeling pretty optimistic about IPv6 too!
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The year of Linux on the desktop is the same year the the Desktop becomes irrelevant.
This isn't about the death of the Desktop, just as the Mainframe hasn't died yet either. It is a shift in usage.
The Mainframe was widely used across orgs including many smaller companies then the PC (and PC based servers) had slowly replaced them leaving the mainframe reserved to large companies who need the big horse power. A lot of mainframe companies have died or been merged and became less relevant Prime, Digital, leav
Mobile devices complementary products ... (Score:2)
This will probably mean the end of Microsoft as well. Likely the beginning of the Year of Linux on the desktop as well.
I realize you are being humorous due to the year of the desktop reference but some readers should consider the following.
With respect to desktop and laptop personal computers mobile devices are complementary products not replacement products. Now tablets, they may be replacement products for netbooks.
At least for regions of the world where people tend to own computers. In other regions the mobile devices are establishing a new market. Today's internet capable smartphone with downloadable apps is tomor
I dunno, man (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if smartphones and such sell more than their larger counterparts, I still don't see it happening that quickly. There's still a lot to be said of the experience of using a "PC" rather than an "app device", regardless of the equal or disparate capabilities between them.
An example is writing...I'm not going to write on a bluetooh-keyboard-connected iPad for the same reason I wouldn't write on a netbook or a laptop; I need to feel centered, to feel like "OK body and mind, we're sitting down, and we're writing." I don't see being able to duplicate that feeling with an "app" device.
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Well said, Pojut.
Re:I dunno, man (Score:5, Funny)
- potential terrorist activity -
Grab those iPads, comrades!
Consuming (Score:3)
Consuming vs. Creating (Score:4, Interesting)
More broadly: anything creative is better done on a computer than a tablet.
A tablet (etc.) is for consumption of content. They rock for accessibility and convenience: just what you need when you are passively consuming content, such as reading or watching. Even gaming counts, as you are not putting anything in to the device: just getting entertainment out of it.
But if you are trying to create something (prose, music, code, graphics, databases, and so on and so on), then a full-fledged computer is vastly superior.
Maybe this will change someday, as the interfaces for devices improve and the apps develop. But in the short-term, I defy someone to create billboard-quality graphics, commercial-grade websites, or a publication-level novel on a tablet. I suppose it can be done, but it would be a heck of a lot easier with a full computer.
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It kind of ignores the fact that people generally replace their phones every two years at most. A decent PC can last 5, even 10 years these days if the user isn't interested in games. So, by default phone sales are going to be at least 2x higher than PC sales, even if people spend more time and money on their PCs.
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I agree. Pen and paper, tablets, smartphones, etc. are all portable, but civilization still has desks, offices and workplaces for a reason.
If only people at work can create (Score:3)
Pundits talk like most people are purely consumers of content, not creators.
Of course people working for a publisher are more likely to push the misconception that only people working for a publisher can be authors.
At least in the white-collar world, though, almost everyone is a content creator when they're at work.
The problem will come when only people who are at work can afford tools to create. This has already happened in video game development; Nintendo requires an office and previous published titles on someone else's platform before it'll sell you a devkit for one of its platforms.
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There's nothing stopping anyone manufacturing a docking device which holds a portable device and extends it with keyboard, mouse and displaying on a decent sized monitor. The difference is that you're free to use it in other ways too.
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I'm refering more to my surroundings.
Example: The desk you see in this picture [livingwithanerd.com] is where I write, typically while my wife is either watching or playing something on the TV. Pay attention to what is immedeatly within my vicinity when sitting there:
-Two walls
-Two monitors
-A large trackball (a Kensington Expert, to be precise)
-My PC Tower
-Posters, pictures, etc.
-A desk
Seeing these things displayed in front of me, filling my field of vision, really help to put me where I need to be. Having the actual monitors
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Most of the computers I have run Linux, even those that are entitled to a license of WinXP and Vista. My phone system runs Linux. It runs Trixbox and integrates with Google Voice and Sipgate. My entertainment system runs Linux attached to a 47" LCD TV. On it I have Ubuntu and XBMC installed. My Pogoplug V2 runs Linux. I use it as my primary UPNP server (even my XBMC sees it as a UPNP device while XBMC itself also operates as a UPNP device), as well as sharing files on the internet . Both my XBOX360 a
Developer soup (Score:5, Insightful)
While I'm all for new technology, we're also entering an era I like to call developer soup. Maybe I just coined that. In any case, there's no good way to target all the platforms anymore. You might argue HTML5, but really only Chrome is useful for that (right now), and many do not run Chrome. Many in fact, still use IE6/7/8 at corps.
It kind of stinks, because before you could make an app for one platform and hit a lot of targets, but not anymore.. Android, iOS, BBOS, Windows, Linux, Mac, MeeGo, the diversity is difficult, at best, if you want an all encompassing app. Ah well, I guess HTML4 for now, HTML5 in 18 months.
there's no good way to target all the platforms (Score:2)
There hasn't been that since, well, ever. Unix vs VMS in the 70's and 80's, Mac vs PC vs Sparc (aaah. The fun of endianness...)...
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Windows dominance only really happened in the mid '90s. Before then, DOS had a large market share, but Commodore, Atari, Apple, Sinclair and Acorn all had a respectable share of the personal computer market (list of companies varied depending on your location).
Windows only really started to compete seriously with UNIX workstations with NT 4 (and then, only at the bottom end of that market) in 1996, so if you were writing a CAD application (for example), you'd have to target a few *NIX variants and have
Not necessarily (Score:2)
You might be thinking too 'inside the box' - for instance, PhoneGap handles pretty much every smartphone OS out there, plus Mac and PC. SO HTML 5 + CSS + JavaScript + (insert JS datahandling concept of choice) has become a VERY viable way of handling a write once then compile for platfom(s) of choice. It's not a solution for every problem, of course - I somehow doubt writing RageHD in HTML 5 is going to be a choice anytime soon. But for 75% of apps out there, it's a good, solid solution. And PhoneGap is
DOORKNOB ERA FORECASTED TO END IN 24 MONTHS (Score:4, Funny)
Re:DOORKNOB ERA FORECASTED TO END IN 24 MONTHS (Score:4, Interesting)
Most awesome! May I also subscribe, multiple times, to your newsletter?
I look forward to orphaning all the perfectly good hardware I own in favor of a paperless, flying-car world of handheld delights and not very good copy or pasting or printing... what's scanning? Well, that's something we used to do with a thing called a USB serial port that our plamtop vendors forgot to equip us with. Now we "scan" by taking a picture of the page you want copied, then upload it thru email to your facetwit account, then convert it into a textless PDF, and we're done... almost. Now, download it again on a real computer and print via an actual USB port connected to a printer(not over wireless where we lose many features), and we're done. Hooray, we are teh suck!
Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to purchase every doorknob at OSH...
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Mmmmmm.... doorknobs.
Best placed inside a sock and applied liberally about the head and body of tech pundits.
Where the Work Is Being Done (Score:5, Insightful)
Until smartphones and tablets displace the PC in being the platform where most of the work is done, I don't consider the PC Era to be over.
Re:Where the Work Is Being Done (Score:4, Insightful)
The era of the PC can't be over anyway, the mainframe era hasn't ended yet.....
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If I didn't need to do coding, I could handle pretty much all the business work I need to do on my iPad with iWork. It handles spreadsheets and word processing just fine with a docking station. And the amount of coding work I'm doing is decreasing every year as I focus more on the business side of the house.
No kidding (Score:3)
Doesn't surprise me that there will be more smartphones. After all, phones are heading the way of all phones being smart phones and we are also heading the way of everyone having a personal phone. Wonderful, however that doesn't mean computers are going away. Thus far I've seen no indication that these devices are going to replace computers for work. Phones particularly but the iPad as well are devices well designed for consumption, not production. That's fine for play, not for work. I'm not just talking de
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Define "work" in such a way that it is not PC centric and we may already be there.
Are Linux Servers "PCs"?
Are MySQL, Apache servers "PCs" ?
Are Email, Messaging and chat "PC" ?
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Linux (Score:3)
So can we declare 2012 the "Year of the Linux Smartphone"?
OK OK will you get off my back now? (Score:2)
Probably true (Score:2)
At work I still need a desktop machine for coding. But as an example, currently my dad has an iMac that I bought him a couple years ago. I bought him an iPad 3G for fathers day because he does travel a lot. Talking with him over thanksgiving, he rarely turns on his iMac any more. Only time he does is to update investments or work on his taxes. The rest of the time he uses the iPad with docking station.
I still have my older Mac Mini hooked up to my TV. I have since 2005, but in the last year or so my X
I highly doubt this (Score:5, Insightful)
What about college students? So, how are they going to type up their exams now. On a smartphone? I think it would be absolutely horrid to write a thesus using a phone. Ouch.
18-months? Really?
Now, I consider myself an avid pc gamer, and I have no plans to move away from that anytime soon, plus the 6 cores are starting to roll out in larger numbers. 3-D technology is getting implemented more and more into PC's (I believe it is NVidia who is doing a bunch of stuff with it).
The thing is that PC's can do so much more than a smartphone, and PC's are upgradable (not just software, but hardware) and it won't void your warranty (well I guess if you buy a PC from Dell or something it might since I don't know the rules with pre-made machines). The point is that as pc's evolve, you can easily evolve and adapt with the times by upgrading your PC. To do this with a smartphone means that you need to buy a new phone. Not all that smart if you ask me
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I frankly don't see myself buying another desktop for home use unless I get back into video editing or 3D as hobby again. If I'm not working around code anymore in another 18 months, I may not be buying a new laptop either. I found two years ago my iPhone did about 90% of what I needed. The iPad seems to fill the other 10%.
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> What about college students? So, how are they going to type up their exams now. On a smartphone?
I think you're missing the point here. The smart phone will *become* their PC. For typing up papers, yes, they'll have a wireless bluetooth keyboard and monitor. The smart phone stays in your pocket, and when you need those peripherals, you'll just sit down next to them. The computing device itself will be mobile, always with you.
And mobile devices are getting increasingly powerful, and will soon be able
End of desktops? (Score:2)
Computerworld forecasted to grow brain: never (Score:5, Insightful)
This is such an idiotic statement. There are already far more cell phones sold, smart or not, per year than PCs, and this has been true for nearly a decade. These phones are being replaced with "app-enabled devices" because it's getting nearly impossible to get a plain old phone - they just don't make them anymore. Even the $0 freebie has some sort of smartphone-like functionality. Hell, my old MotoRazr from 2004 had apps! Shiit Java apps, but still...
The day you can sit down at an "app-enabled device" and professionally write software, code a business-class web site, edit video, design a mechanical blueprint, and play WoW, well that might be the end of the PC era. For now, and the next 10 years at least, we just have a lot of fussy gadgets.
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The "they don't make them anymore" feature phones still outsell smartphones by a very large margin. We're looking at about 4-5 times at the moment.
But even if you count any "I can install a game on it" phone as a "smartphone" (you could do that in early 1990s), they still make a lot of mobile phones that don't even have a screen, much less a capability to install anything on it.
Hyperbole (Score:2)
"an event that may signify the end of the PC-centric era"
I think they overlook a few of factors:
1) smart phones are undergoing a upgrade/replacement phase that isn't seen in the pc world. Outside of the gaming community, many people are fine with the core 2 duo they bought 3 years ago, but in the same period of time they would have replaced a smart phone at least once.
2) many people have more than one smart phone - I have a work phone and a home phone, yet I only have one pc
3) many people are smart phone b
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I would have said the same thing a year ago, but today I find myself using mostly devices at home. I have a Mac Mini at home, but I've been using it hooked up to my TV for several years. Even then, I mostly use my XBox for streaming movies now from Netflix. I gave up my laptop at work to a new hire and have been using my iPad & iPhone since May for most of my work. I still have an iMac at the office. I use it for code reviews and I still step in to help fix things with a couple of our products that
These devices are for consumers (Score:2)
If you create any content (even large blocks of text, much less cad, drawings, etc.), all the other devices suck terribly.
But if you want to play games, listen to songs, watch videos, read what other people write, I agree.
Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sick of being politically correct.
Continuee prediction of the End of the PC Era era (Score:2)
Predicted to last longer than 18 Month
In other news... (Score:2)
Supplement not replace (Score:2)
Two years ago they said no one would use a PC, because netbook sales were through the roof. PCs were entirely dead. But people buy netbooks to supplement their PCs. Same with smartphones and tablets.
I for one... (Score:2)
I for one welcome our new Chumby overlords.
http://www.chumby.com/ [chumby.com]
Television example (Score:5, Interesting)
Apples and oranges... (Score:2)
No surprise (Score:2)
That's because PCs last longer than smartphones, tablets and the like, and people own more of those devices than PCs. The people I know keep PCs for 5-6 years, yet they're replacing their smartphone every 18 months when their carrier offers an upgrade and may replace it more often if it gets broken. And if they have a tablet it's in addition to their smartphone, not in place of it. And then there's their company-issued phone, which is usually in addition to their personal one. Work PCs follow a similar 5-ye
Start of the true Computing era? Power to the PC! (Score:2)
Why? Because I know several tablet owners and smartphone owners, and not a single one of them would "exchange" their PC with these new gadgets. The mobile devices are more like supplementing their PC's, making private streaming and multimedia editing (among many other things) all the more relevant on a true PC.
I really can't see this as the end of the PC era in any capacity. All these new devices do is make people more used to having the power of computing accessi
I thought it was 2 years (Score:2)
I thought the end of everything was in 2 years time (21-Dec-2012)
End of PC era or Beginning of Home Server PC era? (Score:2)
Think about it. Everyone wants easy access and control over their own info. What easier way to achieve this than a centralized home server?
Want all of your music & movies & data in the "cloud"? Why not just have your own stable cloud at home that can sync & stream your data to all of your fragmented year-long-lifespan (disposable) mobile devices?
If only someone made a cheap and reliable OS that could work as both a desktop and/or a server... Too bad MS has artificial remote connection limits
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the PC is dead, long live the PC (Score:2)
PC's won't die. Terminology might change, but the PC will be around for a very long time.
here's an example: PDA's "died" about 5 years ago. Smartphones were the future. and today we have iphones and android phones. the OS is different, and the hardware is a generation removed, the the key difference is that PDA's didn't have a cell phone transmitter/receiver.
I was making skype calls over wifi on my iPAQ ~8 years ago. but, hey, PDA's are dead, right?
Yeah? (Score:2)
Maybe the only way this is important is if you're into the stock market and you time it right. Go short some Dell
Size matters (Score:2)
What's a iPhone? A tiny PC, that's what. And a PC is a giant iPhone. The story here is that lots of people want to carry a small smart screen around with them, like we didn't know that. It's a good place for little apps, messaging, and small emails -- and making phone calls.
But sometimes you want a 20 inch screen - or two of them. How much coding is done on the iPhone? How much graphics editing? Where would you want to write your thesis or read Wikipedia? Reading War and Peace on my smartphone is
Upgradability... (Score:2)
And bags of M&Ms overtake Mobile Devices (Score:2)
It's true. More bags of M&Ms will ship in the next 18 months than all mobile devices combined. This certainly means the end of mobile computing!
Seriously. I am not sure if these devices are all "replacing" PCs. Sure it may dent PC usage, but it's not exactly a cataclysm. I have 2 mobile devices and three PCs, and will likely buy another PC next year.
Mayan calendar (Score:2)
I don't believe it (Score:2)
They have to replace the keyboard first (Score:3)
Sorry, but no. Nothing beats the keyboard for input. We write and write and write all day long. Touch screens are no substitute for a keyboard. There is no substitute for a keyboard yet. Even if they made a hat that lets you think words, it would still not replace the keyboard.
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You are an anomoly. 'People' don't create, they consume.
or want to engage in some high-end 3D FPSers?
iPad v4.0, Wii/xBox/Playstation.
What about the 720p files I shoot on my phone? Store my digitized photo albums, or keep a backup of all the individual songs I bought in case my iPod battery dies?
Somewhere in the cloud, or the central house NAS.
Having said that, I agree. My PCs won't be going anywhere anytime soon. But for a
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Well I remember them supposed to have been dying after the birth of Amiga's(which died a screaming fiery death), and after the start of the console revolution(when they went mainstream), and that hasn't happened. And back ~5 years ago when 3 new consoles were launched.
I foresee the PC being around for a long time still. And probably forever, because there will always be some technology that will require an actual workhorse machine of some flavor.