Is the PC dead?

I have used PCs for the last 20 years or so – I started back in the early 80’s.  I’ve used everything from a 8086 to a quad-processor Intel and even a Mac Lisa (built in 1979-1986) that my Mom bought years ago for around $8000. 

Like many technologies, the PC will soon be obsolete except where true horsepower is really needed to run workstation-style applications like CAD but even their days may be numbered.

Remember in the 80’s when the big push was to get away from that giant piece of hardware to a smaller style of machine which could, dare I say, be portable?  We saw Compaq laptops with miniscule amber and black screens that were touted as “luggables”. 

The 90’s came and went, and the PC lived in glory along with myriad Macintosh computers. Larger hard drives, larger software applications, more storage options, more peripherals to choose from and most importantly, the Operating System. The O/S has grown from a couple of Megabytes to many Gigabytes in size over the years with more features packed in to supposedly make our lives simpler (never happened) and our computers easier to deal with (again, never happened). The push to go from huge servers in a back room serving up text to small amber (or green) monitors in a computer lab to the PC was over and now everyone had a PC.  Suddenly from out of nowhere the laptops were getting to a form that was a manageable size to carry around with us and we could use them anywhere.  The size was not the only thing that helped the technology, the all-out assault on our daily lives of cellphones and data-capable devices enabled us to use our laptops just about anywhere we wanted. 

Enter the Apple iPad and the beginning of a new era in computing.  For years just about every major manufacturer has tried to create and market a tablet PC like the ones we used to see Captain Kirk using on the TV show StarTrek while he perused the halls of the Enterprise reading a book or going through his schedule or logs.  The iPad brought a device that common ordinary people could afford and was easy to use. 

While I am not a huge Apple Fanboy I can appreciate the iPad’s draw – I was one of the early adopters, not having any other Apple products in my house at the time (only PC server, laptops, and desktops).  After owning the device for about a week I declared it ‘marvelous’ and soon could not live without it.  My iPad sits next to me as I write this and it is being used currently to look up that Apple Lisa that my Mom bought so many years ago (in 1982 or so) – have you noticed how many “all-in-ones” there are on the market now similar to the Lisa? 

I have to admit with the speed of change and all the advances in the field of “Cloud” computing that the impending onslaught of even more personal computers in the form of tablets has taken me aback.  While this is a good thing as far as freedom to work or play wherever and whenever we want, it looks like we have come full circle to the giant rooms full of hardware serving up pages for our consumption.  While this is not a bad thing at all it spells certain doom for a PC that once dominated our lives.  With the advent of the tablet form factor (that actually works), the Internet and Cloud computing the PC that I am now typing on may one day (very soon) be a dinosaur in the back of our closets or donated to the local charity of our choice. 

Just remember I told you so.

Adrian