The end of an ERA. Are PC's dying...

[thornc]

After reading several websites, I think that we can safely say that PC's as we know them are dying!
And I am certain some of us will agree and say finally!

• Site 1
• Site 2
• Site 3
• Site 4

I have seen this trend appearing, and was only questioning who would be the big corporation to start it up....
It seems that Microsoft and IBM are the ones that are going to start fighting about it!
Let's face it, an XBOX2/PS3 is just what most of current PC users will really need in the future.
A simple machine to play, internet/email, movie watching, music listening and some document authoring.
Nothing to complicated!
So it seems that the cards are being dealt and that the PC is slowly dying!!
Let's see what will remain in the end!

 

[Dennis Bassboss]

I don't think that it will ever die....Only smaller company are going to get more involved into it...
So what we might se is custom build PCs in the future...and less already built-in computers...

 

[gsobier]

...for business use, PCs will continue... ...mainframe processing should continue because of better hardware which equals better performance (especially for DASD I/O)...

...there is a piece I've copied and pasted here from one of those articles (very interesting and the truth)...

"There was a critical moment in 1994 when Microsoft publicly said it was no longer going to develop OS2, which was IBM’s operating system. It was a really good operating system. It didn’t break and it was very robust. IBM actually had better technology, but the company had aleady misunderstood the nature of the game. It wasn’t about better technology, it was about commonality of platform. Users wanted a common platform so everybody could open each other’s files and Windows became that platform."

...they were being nice and polite... ...it should have been written more like this "Windows became that platform due to world-wide ignorance and stupidity."...

After reading several websites, I think that we can safely say that PC's as we know them are dying!
And I am certain some of us will agree and say finally!

• Site 1
• Site 2
• Site 3
• Site 4

I have seen this trend appearing, and was only questioning who would be the big corporation to start it up....
It seems that Microsoft and IBM are the ones that are going to start fighting about it!
Let's face it, an XBOX2/PS3 is just what most of current PC users will really need in the future.
A simple machine to play, internet/email, movie watching, music listening and some document authoring.
Nothing to complicated!
So it seems that the cards are being dealt and that the PC is slowly dying!!
Let's see what will remain in the end!

 

[thornc]

Maybe, but niche markets like those will be very expensive and will in the end disappear or shrink to a point no company will care!

For corporate computers, thin clients with centralized management is the way to go! Maybe before that we will have a few years with something like a laptop or a small pc with a TFT but in the end that will go away also!

Off course some of us will try to resist the change, other will have to use those expensive workstations to be able to create software/services for the little gadgets that are coming, but the average/normal Joe Doe (lack of a better name) will buy one of these and be happy with it, no more virus, worms or such!

 

[thornc]

more...

• Site 5
• site 6

Off course it's only speculations, but incredibly these speculations are starting to make sense!

 

[KIM]

After reading several websites, I think that we can safely say that PC's as we know them are dying!
And I am certain some of us will agree and say finally!

i highly doubt it but that is just my opinion.

 

[gsobier]

...if anything should die, it should be Windows...

Maybe, but niche markets like those will be very expensive and will in the end disappear or shrink to a point no company will care!

For corporate computers, thin clients with centralized management is the way to go! Maybe before that we will have a few years with something like a laptop or a small pc with a TFT but in the end that will go away also!

Off course some of us will try to resist the change, other will have to use those expensive workstations to be able to create software/services for the little gadgets that are coming, but the average/normal Joe Doe (lack of a better name) will buy one of these and be happy with it, no more virus, worms or such!

 

[thornc]

i highly doubt it but that is just my opinion.

What do you mean exactly?
That you doubt that PCs are changing or that most people will like that?
Can we have your opinnion on this issue?

...if anything should die, it should be Windows...

Well, I think that Microsoft will kill it, or change it considerably! They are already trying to do it with the PocketPC, MediaCenter and other versions!

In the end we should have simple task, tailored versions operating systems!

 

[thornc]

IBM just sold its PC business!

Story here!
To bad, no more Thinkpads!

To me the plot thickens, now IBM can start talking to dell and hp about selling them the Power G5 chips....

 

[charles2]

i think you guys are dreaming and too much in love with your own set of views, in reality the pc business is a $250 billion / year business and is forecast to GROW 10 % next year.

Way to many people have a vested interest in it.

Distributed thin client, sound like the oracle / ibm / sun failure of the 90's?

imo

 

[Godload]

Well if PC's are dying I hope they don't all end up in landfill. A typical computer contains half the periodic table. Lotta nasty stuff like heavy metals mecury etc. If that stuff ends up in land fill they will leach into the water supply eventually.

 

[thornc]

i think you guys are dreaming and too much in love with your own set of views,

Could be! But I am one that will always use a PC like computer, So I think I am not that biased.

in reality the pc business is a $250 billion / year business and is forecast to GROW 10 % next year.
Way to many people have a vested
interest in it.

Yes, and how much of that can be replace with something other than a PC? A desktop computer doesn't necessarily need to be a PC!!

Distributed thin client, sound like the oracle / ibm / sun failure of the 90's?

And many others before those, good ideas sometimes fail because the technology is not available at the time! These days with copper gigabit (and infiniband in the future) lans this might be a good option!

And I am not saying that it will happen overnight, it will take some years but it will probably happen! IMMO!

 

[charles2]

thornc one thing your right about, change is inevitable and will happen, but what change will happen?

 

[KIM]

i'm thinking it might be pc in a cellphone kinda. you know those cellphones that have built-in pda's nowadays. simple but economical and portable. no more need to bring a laptop to check your emails and schedules.

sooner or later, it would be the actual pc aplications built-in the cellphones that would be the latest fad. it had already been on pda's and pda's on cellphones so pc built-in on cellphones won't be a far cry and much much cheaper.