(Article): 'The PC Era Is Over'

[wtsinnc]

From BetaNews.com

http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/ar...ver/1297266659

[J_L]

I'm seriously tired of all this BS. PC's will NOT be replaced by smartphones, they are 2 completely different products.

[Noob]

PC era is over for everyday users (Who loves to stick with their Blackberries 24/7 of the time, in the bathroom, while eating, while watching TV, while sleeping, while DRIVING , damn it's a total plague!)

But for people like me there is NO change to PC
PC RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULEZ

IMO, we should ban those damn Blackberries (Here where i live). People even kill to get one (Low life dudes), that's really sad from this society

[1chaoticadult]

Originally Posted by J_L

I'm seriously tired of all this BS. PC's will NOT be replaced by smartphones, they are 2 completely different products.

I agree. They need to stop the propaganda

[Bill_Bright]

You guys don't know what you are talking about! The PC era will end and I will give up my PC as soon as they fit my two 22" widescreen monitors, full size keyboard, mouse, and of course, my surround sound speaker system into my smartphone.

[xxJackxx]

Joe Wilcox tends to write a lot of sensationalistic articles. When I see a headline on Betanews I know immediately if he wrote it or not. I tend not to take anything he writes seriously.

[dw426]

Eh, every tech mag and site is on board the "mobile era" wagon. They never bother to go into detail about how cloud apps and cloud computing is the only possible way PCs will "die"..and last I checked the "cloud" is sputtering along, never fully picking up steam. If people stop playing full blown games, stop editing photos and movies, and such, then sure, maybe mobile will get ahead of PCs. Until then, you can forget it.

Let's not forget that in the mobile world, the carriers won the battle of the bandwidth. With their data caps and "network protections" (means slowing down your expensive internet), you aren't going to be doing much of the above even if mobile COULD do it.

[Bill_Bright]

Joe Wilcox tends to write a lot of sensationalistic articles. When I see a headline on Betanews I know immediately if he wrote it or not. I tend not to take anything he writes seriously.

Well, he's probably right. The PC is a big, power hungry, heat producing, floor space hogging, box. I can someday see sitting down at a desk, "dock" the smartphone and become instantly networked with high-speed Internet, full sized monitors, keyboard, etc. Instead today where some monitors have built-in TV tuners, all TVs will have Internet access - perhaps with touch screen technologies, and/or total voice recognition. Some day. For now, at least for me, the keyboard and mouse are natural extensions of my fingers and communicating through them has become second nature for me.

My problem with smartphones is I work out of my home and I have a "home phone". I use my cell phone maybe once a month so I never really learn or get used to it - it is not intuitive, at least not for me. There are no industry standards like ATX and keyboard layouts, so phones are very proprietary. This forces us to teach ourselves and learn again, almost from scratch, the new phone and all the new features, and maybe a new carrier too. Increased learning curves decreases my desire to learn the phone even more.

Safety will need to play a greater role in the future of smartphone technology. It will take a few more crashes and people walking off cliffs while texting, but it will happen. I note there are apps that will disable a phone, except for 991, when movement exceeds 15mph. Great for parents with invincible teenagers.

And then there is the security part. To learn my life, someone has to break in to my home, survive getting licked to death by the guard dog, steal my computer, then hack it. A cell phone can be lost, stolen, or dropped in the toilet.

Plus, my PC can run 24/7 without recharging, and with multiple extensions for my home phone throughout the house, I don't have to remember where I set down my cell or keep myself tethered to it. Plus others in the house can just "pick up" to join, or take over the conversation.

I don't think "the cloud" is the issue. We are already dependent on "the cloud". Most of us can access our email, do our banking, on-line shopping, access work or school from any computer. The difference "the cloud" will make for most of us is storage of our personal files (docs, songs, email, pictures, etc.), and our favorite programs. They will all be on-line and much already is. Apps like Office 2010 are already running in the cloud. You sign in from anywhere, download the Word interface and continue writing your letter.

[1chaoticadult]

Originally Posted by Bill_Bright

You guys don't know what you are talking about! The PC era will end and I will give up my PC as soon as they fit my two 22" widescreen monitors, full size keyboard, mouse, and of course, my surround sound speaker system into my smartphone.

LOL Bill good luck on your dream

[dcrowe0050]

I think it is a wild idea to say that the PC era is over. Not only is it untrue but i it were the case it would be many years down the road. many many years. There is a lot of buzz with smartphones and tablets but lets be honest, how are PC's (desktops) compared to a smartphone or tablet. They are different products. This is not to say that PC's are as in demand as they once were because lets face it, a lot of businesses are turning to virtual computing which I can definitely see the upsides to this change. Whatever the case may be, technology is rapidly growing and changing all the time. Last night and tonight I watched IBM's Watson computer on Jeopardy but I am not sure that the possibilities for this computer have even sunk in yet. I mean a computer that finally understands natural language. Think of the applications for this.

Now I am rambling. In any case, the PC will rule and the smartphone will also rule, each in their different environments.

[farmerlee]

I don't think the pc era is quite over yet but people definitely seem to be heading more towards laptops, tablets & smartphones from wat i see.
I find myself heading that way too. The only time i turn my pc on these days is to do some gaming or mess around with a bit of software perhaps. All my browsing and communication is now done via my ipad or smartphone.

[Bill_Bright]

And yet many notebook owners are turning back to PCs because they cannot upgrade their notebooks for all sorts of reasons. There are limited or no upgrade options. It is too proprietary therefore limited and expensive upgrade options. Beyond the skillset of most users to clean properly or maintain. PCs can evolve piece by piece, easier on the budget, over many more years and remain current. Notebooks must be replaced completely at once.

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Bill_Bright

And yet many notebook owners are turning back to PCs because they cannot upgrade their notebooks for all sorts of reasons. There are limited or no upgrade options. It is too proprietary therefore limited and expensive upgrade options. Beyond the skillset of most users to clean properly or maintain. PCs can evolve piece by piece, easier on the budget, over many more years and remain current. Notebooks must be replaced completely at once.

If you had said "netbooks", I would agree with you. Netbooks failed, and are being put in the footnotes section of tech history as yet another "wave of the future" prediction falling on its face. Notebooks are a different thing entirely. Given the right specs, they perform everything a desktop can. Is it more expensive to get a laptop with that kind of power? Sure. But it can still be done. Netbooks were never meant to come anywhere near that kind of power, they were basically created for the less developed nations. The "neat factor", as always, plus the chance at more money for vendors caused them to get introduced into the "mainstream" market. People thought "cool!", took them home, booted them up, and started exploring outside their email inbox and document processors, and quickly found their new toys' limits.

[Bill_Bright]

Netbooks failed, and are being put in the footnotes section of tech history as yet another "wave of the future" prediction falling on its face.

Readers and tablets help kill netbooks. But netbooks were too limited.

Given the right specs, they perform everything a desktop can.

Not really. Yes, an expensive notebook can match many PCs, but you can't easily run 3 or more monitors, for example, or have 4 internal drives. And most people cannot afford an expensive notebook every few years.

It is a challenge to cool gaming PCs - Notebooks cannot support the cooling anything close to that of a PC. And most users do not have the skillset to open and thoroughly clean a notebook.

"Desktop replacement" and "gaming laptop" are marketing terms. They don't accurately reflect reality. They are adequate for many users, but inadequate for many users too.

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Bill_Bright

Readers and tablets help kill netbooks. But netbooks were too limited.

Not really. Yes, an expensive notebook can match many PCs, but you can't easily run 3 or more monitors, for example, or have 4 internal drives. And most people cannot afford an expensive notebook every few years.

It is a challenge to cool gaming PCs - Notebooks cannot support the cooling anything close to that of a PC. And most users do not have the skillset to open and thoroughly clean a notebook.

"Desktop replacement" and "gaming laptop" are marketing terms. They don't accurately reflect reality. They are adequate for many users, but inadequate for many users too.

If the iPad hadn't taken off like it has, tablets would be in the same footnotes (remember, tablets came and went a few other times before). You make a great point regarding peripherals, extra drives and cooling. That isn't going to happen on a notebook. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of actual "work" they could do, as in photo editing, playing "some" games, and so on.

[DVD+R]

Grow Up!

[dw426]

Originally Posted by DVD+R

Grow Up!

To whom do you refer?

[Daveski17]

Netbooks are dead? Damn! Just when I was thinking of buying one. I'm just not 'with it' these days.

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Daveski17

Netbooks are dead? Damn! Just when I was thinking of buying one. I'm just not 'with it' these days.

Eh, dead to the mainstream. They're still useful and will likely thrive in the markets they were originally built for (think African schools and other uses in less developed countries). My big concern with the supposed "takeover" by smartphones and tablets is how in the heck are we to secure these things once the inevitable, and already in the wild, malware infections start? Are we going to start slapping on AVs and anti-malware software? Will there be a Comodo for Android or something?

It's not too early to wonder about such things, what with the success of iPad and the various smartphones. Also, considering data plans on these devices, it would be smart to start wondering what will happen when those AV/anti-malware updates start rolling in...unless everybody decides on the cloud. Good move perhaps, but not one I see coming all that soon.

[Daveski17]

Originally Posted by dw426

Eh, dead to the mainstream. They're still useful and will likely thrive in the markets they were originally built for (think African schools and other uses in less developed countries).

That's OK then, I live in the UK ...

Originally Posted by dw426

My big concern with the supposed "takeover" by smartphones and tablets is how in the heck are we to secure these things once the inevitable, and already in the wild, malware infections start? Are we going to start slapping on AVs and anti-malware software? Will there be a Comodo for Android or something?

I'm sure the AV companies are already working on this. £££££!

I still fancy a Netbook though. LOL

[Mrkvonic]

Don't feed the trolls ... as simple as that.
Mrk

[Noob]

Hahahaha, tablets are probably useful for the guys that "only" chat through msn, logs into facebook and all what the normal people do.
But professionals, gamers and demanding users will always prefer desktop

[safeguy]

I've never seen a time machine right in front of my very own eyes in real life.
I've never seen a real dinosaur right in front of my very own eyes in real life.
I've seen babes in bikini right in front of my very own eyes in real life.

Get it? No worries - I live in the present. Tell me when it really 'is over'..

[DVD+R]

Originally Posted by dw426

To whom do you refer?

The Whole media enterprise who publish such crap, it'll never happen so i dont know why they bother printing such garbage

[dw426]

Originally Posted by DVD+R

The Whole media enterprise who publish such crap, it'll never happen so i dont know why they bother printing such garbage

Because tech media outlets and bloggers will eat up everything that comes out of a vendors' marketing department. Then, it trickles down to the public who, being the gullible and easily distracted by new toys sort they are, also deem such stories as biblical truth until they get their paws on the various toys and find out the promise was quite a bit more than the delivery. It happens every single year, every year is the year of something.