If you haven’t already – check out Dirk Meyer’s post on Forbes titled “Why the PC is Not Dead”
I tend to agree with 100% of what Dirk says in this post. The fact that the argument that the personal computer is dead, and will be replaced by you name it: thin client, tablet, netbook, the cloud…is open to discussion…so let’s discuss.
The assumption that we know today what demands will be placed on personal computing 10 years from now is crazy. 10 years ago, many could not predict that digital content creation would move to the masses. That everyday consumers would shoot their own video, edit it, store it, and publish it for everyone to enjoy. Nor did we imagine that home made video (content in general) would launch “stars” like Justin Bieber or Fred. That this thirst to connect to others and their content would bring rise to one of the most influential companies on the planet – Facebook, to a new way of sharing – blogs and twitter.
The question is how and what we share today going to be the same in 10 years? One thing is for sure – content is only going to get richer whether its 3D or even beyond 3D. Are we going to be able to create and store such content on a tablet and in the cloud? Maybe, or maybe not. There are too many variables at play… bandwidth being one.
Dirk talks about AMD advancements in APUs (combining CPU and GPU into a single processor) called Fusion and what potential impact this alone may have on personal computing. Video undoubtedly is the killer app for personal computing and storage. Being a storage guy, I look at the history of the hard drive and the advent of SSD and now Solid State Hybrid drives and how it has evolved to keep pace with the sheer computing power offered up by the processor guys. Some may say that the hard drive is the one thing holding everything back, thus SSD is the future of storage for the performance benefits alone. Afterall, the faster you can process, the more you can process, and the richer the content you create…the more storage you need…and we’re right back to the hard drive (in its current state, or perhaps hybrid technology will become the standard)
So, is the PC really dead? Some say it’s inevitable and its happening right now… I think it’s just keeps reinventing itself over and over again.
But that’s just my slanted opinion…what do you think?
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Great point Mark – there’s so much to learn from figuring out what hasn’t changed amidst all the change. Whether it’s a PC or an iStone someday, we’ll be needing – something? – to deal with the gap between the richness of content and the delivery channel.
Content richness drives both storage capacity and bandwidth. Or is the reverse true? It’s a never ending chase either way.