Is the PC Era Coming to a Close?

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Given the unbelievable growth mobile computing has seen in the past five or so years, especially with regards to things like tablets, it seems obvious that the "future is mobile". But does that mean that the era of the PC is coming to a close? According to Dr. Mark Dean, one of the co-creators of the first IBM personal computer, it is.

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Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!
 

Tharic-Nar

Senior Editor
Staff member
Moderator
Good old IBM, making predictions about PCs again... we all know how that turned out ;).
 

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
Very true, Jamie. I'm just glad that my home is lucky enough to have 80% of the PCs in the world.
 

marfig

No ROM battery
>> Where do you guys see the PC world in the next 5 years? The next 10? Will we all soon be more concerned with overclocking our phones rather than our desktop PCs?

Right where it is. A modest growth every year.

I expect desktops to eventually disappear or change format. But not in my lifetime. Necessarily they will be increasingly displaced by other devices. It's only natural because they had to become ubiquitous out of lack of real alternatives. As those alternatives emerge, they take their rightful place displacing the desktop/laptop in the process. I couldn't think of a more natural process in computing history. That this is being seen as the end of the PC era is however a bit ludicrous. No matter who says that.

...

Maybe in 30 or 40 years, maybe in 50 years, things will change. But there's more to the end of the personal computer (technically tablets are personal computers, btw) that simply faster and more powerful processors. The whole computer architecture needs to change, and new technologies devised, that can bridge the gap between desktop (including laptops) and tablets and other mobile devises usability. This includes devising means to better control these devices. The keyboard and the mouse are still, for better or worse, the best controllers yet invented. Productivity isn't something easily obtainable without those with modern technologies. We'd need something out of Minority Report and even that doesn't quite answer questions such as how to write a letter or a report, how to program a computer program or edit video, ...

We have to keep remembering ourselves that radio was going to destroy the printing press, the tv the radio, the internet the tv, the laptop the desktop, ... Concerning the latter, the matter of fact is that not even the PC destroyed the PC.

When we really evolve computing instead of just creating new form factors -- that is when we invent new architectures, instead of finding new ways to use the same architecture -- then we will finally and probably discuss the end of the PC era.
 

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
I'm a big Ghost In The Shell fan and I always day dream about what it would be like to be able to have a ghost on the Net. Who knows?
 

marfig

No ROM battery
I'm a big Ghost In The Shell fan and I always day dream about what it would be like to be able to have a ghost on the Net. Who knows?

Funny you mentioned that. I see digital implants happening before PCs disappear. Such is my level of skepticism about the death of this format.

As for having a ghost on the net, the closest you can get for now -- if you are into pen & paper RPGs -- is to play Shadowrun. I was an unconditional fan for many years.
 

2Tired2Tango

Tech Monkey
Smaller seems better these days...

First there was the Shuttle then came ASRock all offering smaler and smaller boxes with adequate performance. Two years ago I predicted that "nettops" would make a huge mark on the desktop market and although the growth is slower than expected the mini-itx market is taking off. About half the computers I now take care of are "Smaller Form Factor" machines and more are joining the ranks all the time.

The integration between computers and entertainment is also happening, but slowly. Eventually the heart of each home theatre will be a computer... not a DVD player. But that's going to take some time as the "I don't want some ugly computer in my livingroom" stigma seems not to be going away... Even though htpc systems the size of a superman lunchbox are common place these days, the stigma remains.

Where's it going? Smaller, more personal, more presentable systems... With multimedia and networking capabilities to enable a swarm of mobile devices in the home.

http://sites.amd.com/us/fusion/apu/Pages/fusion.aspx

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=69

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6363216&CatId=3428
 
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Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
Mini-ITX system are teh seks!

I'd love to run one if I could find a board that overclocked insanely well and a case that would support my gear.
 

2Tired2Tango

Tech Monkey
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Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Eh, "live long enough to witness its decline" is the key point made here. It's easy enough to see desktop systems will migrate to mobile, after the technology reaches a point that a mobile system can do everything a fully-featured desktop could do without any compromises having to be made in battery life, portability, or cost. That time is obviously a few decades out, best case.

Of course, something could always change that. If, or more likely, when virtual reality is suddenly invented, it'd probably take leading edge horsepower just to power it. And as VR became increasingly realistic and advanced it would require some of the best performance available for some time... and so that might ensure desktop PCs as we know them would have a place for a considerably longer time than IBM foresees.

Of course, there are other complications. Each home will eventually have a centralized PC to control and operate home appliances, monitor utilities, manage the environment such as with the AC/heater and lights, run the entertainment system, and eventually maybe serve a dual purpose as the user's desktop. So does this even count as a personal PC? Many people already use HTPCs to run their entertainment systems, nettops to operate smart homes and smart appliances, and still have a desktop PC ontop of all that. Once smart meters and appliances and homes take off it is just a matter of time before it makes sense to have a single powerful, centralized home system that is capable of running everything.

Other things might be developed too... just look at Watson. It takes 2,880 Power7 "cores" just to run a software program that can understand human language and answer questions queried in the same language. Having a home/house computer that can talk, converse, and perform tasks like almost any Sci-Fi movie or Star Trek episode will require the same amount of processing power. I suspect desktop PCs will be capable of handling it much sooner than any laptop will.
 
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