The PC Is Dead, Long Live the PC

swarfega said:

Ive been reading that the PC is dead for the past 10 years. Its not dead.

This is just an recondite and abstract way of looking at the term PC. So it depends on your definition of 'Personal Computer'.

The PC is not dead, nor ever will be.

Why? In an abstruse way - it never actually lived.



What is perceived to be the death of the PC is nothing more than changing the methods of how we accomplish the same tasks we do now, as mentioned in the article.

The notion of PC death stems from the fact it is desktop computers and how they are trying to change how we currently utilise them coupled with the fact that there is a great push to phase them out and replace them with alternative methods.

Enter tablets/netbooks and goodbye to whatever element of 'personal computing' we currently perceive it as (desktops), since things are now erring towards complete and utter homogeneity with locked down and mass produced uniform devices.

(Putting a sticker on a device may personalise it - but it doesn't make it personal. )



Operating Systems and applications, be they Linux/MAC/Windows based can be 'personally' customised to an extent - but ultimately we have been, and are, limited by boundaries. Not really personal.

The same applies to component choices - you still have 'choices' but we are still fundamentally limited to a subset of technology and their subsequent manufacturers. Again, not really personal.

Combine the two and you will soon realise that ultimately there was, and is nothing truly 'personal' about computing.


Broadly speaking, we currently still have 'personal choices' in how we use our computers, tablets, netbooks etc - but in reality, these 'personal choices' have always been limited and have never actually been what could be defined as truly personal.



Ergo - The term 'PC' itself is a misnomer, and as such - since the PC was never alive, it is not dying - nor can it ever be dead.

Nice post smarteyeball, well put.


The PC, personal computer, computer or communication and information device, that people choose to buy and use will continue to change as all things change.

Small Netbooks and Cell phones are mini computers, probably with more computing power than most people currently need.

The average casual user, surfs, visits social network sites, shops, pays some bills, finds some information on the web, email, maybe an occasional letter. None of these need more than 20% of the power in todays mid to high end computers.
The average office workers need communications, information access, the ability to produce documents, email.
And with more apps going to the cloud, they will need less powerful computers and more internet bandwidth.

Research, engineering and graphics will still need powerful computers.

There will still be a fairly large amount of people that actually need a powerful computer, either for work or for personal use.

The question is will people choose to stop buying desktops and power laptops.

The desktop and power laptop will not die out in the next couple of years, but will start to decline in the near future, say, ten years. If the internet bandwidth can grow fast enough.

smarteyeball said:

swarfega said:

Ive been reading that the PC is dead for the past 10 years. Its not dead.

This is just an recondite and abstract way of looking at the term PC. So it depends on your definition of 'Personal Computer'.

The PC is not dead, nor ever will be.

Why? In an abstruse way - it never actually lived.



What is perceived to be the death of the PC is nothing more than changing the methods of how we accomplish the same tasks we do now, as mentioned in the article.

The notion of PC death stems from the fact it is desktop computers and how they are trying to change how we currently utilise them coupled with the fact that there is a great push to phase them out and replace them with alternative methods.

Enter tablets/netbooks and goodbye to whatever element of 'personal computing' we currently perceive it as (desktops), since things are now erring towards complete and utter homogeneity with locked down and mass produced uniform devices.

(Putting a sticker on a device may personalise it - but it doesn't make it personal. )



Operating Systems and applications, be they Linux/MAC/Windows based can be 'personally' customised to an extent - but ultimately we have been, and are, limited by boundaries. Not really personal.

The same applies to component choices - you still have 'choices' but we are still fundamentally limited to a subset of technology and their subsequent manufacturers. Again, not really personal.

Combine the two and you will soon realise that ultimately there was, and is nothing truly 'personal' about computing.


Broadly speaking, we currently still have 'personal choices' in how we use our computers, tablets, netbooks etc - but in reality, these 'personal choices' have always been limited and have never actually been what could be defined as truly personal.



Ergo - The term 'PC' itself is a misnomer, and as such - since the PC was never alive, it is not dying - nor can it ever be dead.

Very well said!

Maybe the few words in the quotation were taken out of context, but I'm having a hard time equating those words with "death of the PC" ...

Let's takes "trucks in an agrarian world". Is this supposed to mean the trucks serve no useful purpose in the farming industry? Really? Are these the trucks that haul raw materials to the farms -- like seeds, fertilizer, etc.? Are these the mechanized vehicles that harvest the produce -- like combine harvesters? Are these the trucks that haul the resulting harvest to local, regional, and national markets for delivery to restaurants, grocery stores, and consumers?

Seems to me that trucks play a very valuable role in an agrarian world.

Then, let's take the comment about being uncomfortable talking about a post-PC era. As others have pointed out far more eloquently than I could, if you define "PC" in futurisitic terms, to include such things as iPads, Slates .. and include the very new Sony multimedia device ... you could make the arguement that there will not be a "post-PC era", at least, not in the forseeable future.

And finally, saying the PC is dead now reminds me of all those know-it-all Yuppies in the heyday of the dot-com era that pronounced "brick and mortar" retailing as near death, as well. Don't know about you, but I still see a LOT of shopping centers with brick-and-mortar stores still around -- and the dot-com Yuppies are back working for a living.

Jobs and his lies. Everything seem to be magical for him. Note: magical