LCDs, hard drives join PCs in Dullsville

WHEN I FIRST started writing for The Inq, I wrote about how chip companies and ultimately PC manufactures were going to run into a “performance plateau”. This is teh point at which they could continue to add features and bells and whistles, but it just wouldn't matter because there wouldn't be a way to take advantage of all the extra goodies because the software isn't there and there's just no need for all the horsepower.

A perfect example of this is a typical dual core CPU in any PC or laptop. It's in there because the price point is right, but Vista doesn't care, and at least 90 percent of off-the-shelf software doesn't have a clue on how to take advantage of a dual-core or quad-core or whatever-core CPU is going to be shoveled out next quarter. Run most vanilla tasks, be they web surfing or word processing or e-mail and it doesn't matter if the clock is running at 2 GHz or 3 GHz or 3 GHz with quad-cores - there's a lot of idle capacity sitting there keeping the box warm.

What this translates to is that people not buying computers as fast as they once did, because last year's 386 was replaced by a Pentium was replaced by a Pentium IV and when you realize your box isn't going to get that much of a lift with the next generation of technology, you are basically playing a waiting game until there's something on your box that either breaks or is not supported before you are forced to buy the Next Best Thing.

Desktop LCD monitors are pretty close to reaching their plateau this year. I went out a couple of weeks ago and bought the smokin' Samsung SyncMaster 226bw, a 22” widescreen display with a 3000:1 contrast ration and a 2 ms response time, for the low-low price of $329 here in the States. Where do I go from here? A 24 inch screen with sub-ms response time and lower power consumption? It doesn't get much better than this for most of us common folks.

I suppose if we were to puff on the pipe of futuristic promises, there's an OLED replacement in my future with better colors, lower power, and maybe the ability to wirelessly communicate with the desktop/laptop. Oh yes, and light enough so I can put it up with glorified double-sided duct tape on the wall where I want it. But that's a pretty big leap.

Similarly, the two most exciting things in hard drive land are external SATA and 1 TB drives for under $400. The two most exciting things in hard drive land a year from now will be external SATA and 1 TB drives for around $200. Again, there isn't a whole lot of innovation (or sales) going on once you sell your first couple of TB drives.

Let us hope that the software guys come up with a bunch of new, cool, network-enabled, distributed applications for the household, so we can all plug in multiple TB drives around the pad, because otherwise the land of PCs are going to continue to get more boring every year.