Harvard PR - we've heard of it but never hear from it
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INQUIRER readers say the PC isn't dead
THE PC ISN'T DEAD, The INQUIRER's readers say, after an IBM executive claimed the contrary yesterday.
IBM Middle East and Africa CTO Mark Dean's comments that we have "moved beyond" the PC era were made on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the IBM Personal Computer.
Dean said that even he now uses a tablet, adding, "When I helped design the PC, I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness its decline".
He claimed,"while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they're no longer at the leading edge of computing" and are going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.
But according to The INQUIRER's readers, Dean was talking a load of old rubbish. Chris said, "I'm a web designer/developer. It is just not feasible for me even to consider using a tablet/phone or even a laptop for what I do, it would take me 50x longer to write code on a tablet or phone - constantly switching between alpha, numeric and symbol key pads."
He continued, "No the PC is not dead, my multi monitor setup with a custom built I7 configuration cannot and will not be substituted until like performance can be achieved on a mobile device and even when that happens, I will still require some form of dock that will support multiple monitors and input devices."
Readers generally agreed that tablets had become a viable option for some users, but said that they are not powerful enough to replace the just PC yet.
Valerie said, "It may be that laptops or tablets take over the market from traditional desktops, but the basic needs will still be the same. People need big displays and working input methods accompanying the devices.
"Anybody tried blind typing with a touch display? Impossible, I know. Of course by time, highly developed software based solutions can compensate the lack of "touch" in touch displays, but it'll take its time."
Allan agreed, saying, "Yes its true Tablets are taking over many aspects of computing, and games consoles are slowly stealing the lime light, but PCs are far from done. PCs are seen as the backbone of home media and internet access. Tablets are a long way off complex video editing, and lack the power for serious gaming. They also lack simple print methods with most makes of printers. PCs also have more storage space than portable devices."
At least for some, Dean's claim was premature. Josh said, "Claiming the 'PC is dead' may be a bit premature. Tablets are great for what they are and they are seriously cutting into the laptop PC market, but there has yet to be a legit replacement for the desktop PC when it comes to engineering, office adminstration, etc. Touchscreen keyboards are only so good and you can't sit with a tablet on your lap for hours on end writing. I'm certain we'll see PC's change, but there will still be a keyboard, mouse, and monitor on a lot of desks for a long time to come."
However, Jimbo in Thailand argued, "While workstation PCs won't go away anytime soon, consumer PCs are definitely dinosaurs long overdue for the tar pits. It just makes sense with the incredible advancements in chip manufacturing technology during the last decade. I look forward to purchasing a 'laptop replacement' smartphone, or similar tiny device, that will have at least current high end laptop capabilities. And it won't be long. Tablets and smartphones already have dual core 1.4-1.5 GHz processors and have only been held back by limited graphics horsepower. Luckily, that technology is finally advancing after 5 or 6 years in the doldrums."
Grunchy agreed with Jimbo, saying, "Respectfully though, in a matter of months many of us are going to be using tablets. It isn't that the PC is dead, it's just that the tablet has gotten enough power to become useful. The PC was around for several years before it ever became popular, because it took that long to become powerful enough to do something useful. " µ
Tags: Hardware
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never mind whether it is possible/ feasible, but...
take your large format phone, give it a 3 Ghz quadcore processor with 10mb cache, good graphics accelerator...
it will be almost as good as a desktop.. you do know about fullsize portable wifi mice & keyboards??
add the capability to run *any* windows program, it *will* be a portable desktop..
its just IBM saying "WE invented the word PC, the ONLY thing it applies to is OUR design :-( = so it is dead.."
the point is, the word "Personal Computer (PC) " has been hijacked long ago to mean *anything* - yes, apples, iphones, tablets, *anything* that can do most of what your desktop can do, is a PC!!
just think.. sellotape(R) is used for almost every other brand of tape.. only pedants call it 'adnhesive tape' :-/
I own several PC's as well as an iphone and an Ipad2 and a laptop, and yes I use the Iphone in the house and the Ipad to browse with, and for this purpose smart phones and tablets are great for browsing emails whilst out and about.
My wife is constantly using the Ipad to browse with whilst at home infront of the TV, but..
When it comes time to do some real work, excel spreadsheets, word documents, etc etc.. the home pc just dominates, like others I use 3 monitors on my home pc, I do web design and media management (I work for a music label) and editing music on 1 screen whilst browsing on a 2nd and emailing on a 3rd is for me 'working'..
Whereas all the gizmo's (iphone+ipad etc) are merely for light hearted browsing..
If I go away for work, I take the laptop, the ipad I wouldnt even consider taking..
PC dead, far from it, now that all the gizmo's are connected the pc is needed more than ever to keep the gizmo's fed with info...
If you could put enough horspower and storage to do actual work into a tablet, then add a decent size screen and mouse and keyboard, then a tablet would be fine to work on... of course then you would actually have a PC. Tablets are simply the physical manifestation of the novelty of touch screens. Eventually people will realise that waving your hand around a decent size (say 30") touch screen will leave you exhausted after about an hour and the fad will be over. Either that or apple will bring out an Ipad with a big screen and a patented fold out keyboard - the trick will making it not look like a laptop.
I own and use an NVidia Tegra 2 based Android 3.1 tablet and yes they seem powerful, however I have quickly found their limitations.
Tablets are mere entertainment appliances to consume information, to play some games and communicate.
Tablets are certainly not usable or anywhere near powerful enough for most creative work; media editing and any serious software development require much more powerful CPUs with loads of memory and loads of fast local storage.
Mains based computers will still be required because there is neither the space nor the required access speed to store all of your data on a cloud server despite the hype, so large local disks are required to contain a users full media library.
I have recently built a 5 x 2TB AMD Fusion based FreeNAS 64-bit 8GB ZFS RAIDZ2 NAS to hold all of my important data and media collection for my PC, netbook and tablet, for many years; for much less cost than an Apple iPad 2 64GB 3G tablet or any comparable commercial NAS! ZFS makes other file systems look so 20th century, backwards and unreliable, the tablets included!
Tablets and smartphones can replace your PC, as long as you don't do any productive work on your PC.
In other words, tablets and smartphones are perfectly adequate for useless gits in Management. Also for pre-teen girls gushing over Justine Bieber.
Just the next step of the world dumbing-down. Instead of sitting focused on one task, the twitchy short-attention span drooling masses can now sit on the couch and watch Jack Bauer torturing "terrorists" while tweeting about it on their horrible touch pad "keyboard".
It's all long been predicted in Science Fiction, actually since Well's "The Time Machine", where the morlocks prey on the surface dwellers.
No one has said that PCs are dead.
No. One.
What they are saying is that PCs as the dominant platform is over - and has been for a long time. That is simple reality. Get over it.
in the home, sure, I think desktops are dying somewhat, at least the big bulky case version. But computers aren't going anywhere. And neither are big desktop monitors.
And tablets... well stuff like printing is still a hassle, extended typing isn't great, their office apps aren't ms office, etc. I'd say for most people they are glorified e-readers. That's not to say they won't get there. Obviously the windows 8 tablets next year will be able to do all these things, assuming the tablet interface on windows 8 is complete (I'm hoping it is but betting it isn't)
IBM were useless anyway with their overpriced and restrictive under-performing junk. no-one in their right mind would agree with their opinion
they were never a home-user supplier anyway so they have no grounds to comment
good riddance to them!
The PC obviously is not dead and will not be dead for a long, long time. Yes people who like fads will buy a toy tablet or other device but most people will still use a laptop or desktop PC.
It's no surprise that INQ is hugely biased towards geekiness and workstations. But for vast majority of users PC is dead. I would predict that PC components will start losing "economy of scale" benefits soon. They will become costlier relatively to mass-manufactured laptops and tablets and that will spiral them down to a niche product for professionals and enthusiasts. The Golden era of PC is certainly over.
throw away my PC/Mac a tablet would have to be quad core with USB ports, printer drivers, Lightroom, Photoshop, Indesign etc. As I am a graphic designer/photographer and work with large RAW and Photoshop files alternatives to the PC/Mac are just not there and won't be for a good while. Current tablets are just useless for my purpose.
The revolution has begun for most non-workstation users though.