So while the competitors think they will be successful creating a PC replacement (after all, its clear that they get their ideas largely from Apple), Apple is creating devices which are enhancements, not necessarily replacements for the PC.
For some people, like myself or probably most people on a forum like this one, an iPad is an enhancement. But I think that for quite a few people, an iPad is all that they will ever need or want. Some of the older generation comes to mind. Grandma is not going to order a bunch of parts from Newegg and build a souped up gaming machine with dual video cards and 24 GB of RAM to use as their main PC. Grandma is very likely scared to death of computers and might never even have touched a computer in their entire life. But, give an iPad to your grandmother and there's a good chance that she'll be messaging and video calling with her grandkids in no time. The iPad is of course technically speaking a computer, but it's also very much an appliance, which is partly why it's been so successful.
I think that there's a segment of the market which has stayed away from PC's. Those same people that might have been terrified of PC's and ignorant as to their usage can get a super user friendly iPad and use that as their main and only machine for surfing, emails and everything else that somebody chooses to do with their iPad. For these people, which I believe represents a big part of the market, they don't need or want a full "PC" because an iPad fulfills their needs and does it in a way that is better than anything else, thanks to it's next generation UI.
Other people who are content creators and professionals that rely on powerful desktops will continue to use them. PC's (both Mac & PC's) aren't going away anytime soon. The PC people who get offended by the usage of "Post-PC" are just being ignorant baboons because it doesn't mean that PC's (both Mac & PC) are disappearing anytime soon. The landscape is just shifting.
Yet again microsoft misses the boat, much as they did the cloud. Now, microsoft doesn't understand the Post-PC era, which doesn't mean that people will start dumping their PCs, but rather, PCs are not necessary as the digital hub. Apple's vision of the cloud, iCloud, takes prominence as the digital hub, ensuring that all devices connected to that user stay in sync, music, contacts, schedule, photos, documents & more. The Post-PC era will see less importance on the home PC, while greater usability of portable devices will enable far more opportunities such as reading news & professional journals, time management, instant communications, e-mail & more. Much of the simpler tasks can now be handled on portable devices, allowing us to be anywhere for these tasks & unchaining us from the PC anchored to your desk. But, with microsoft already signaling it's lost in the mobile arena, windows phone hasn't gone anywhere by microsoft's own admission & their tablet hopes still years away, they are are quickly becoming yesterday's tech
Yet again microsoft misses the boat, much as they did the cloud. Now, microsoft doesn't understand the Post-PC era, which doesn't mean that people will start dumping their PCs, but rather, PCs are not necessary as the digital hub. Apple's vision of the cloud, iCloud, takes prominence as the digital hub, ensuring that all devices connected to that user stay in sync, music, contacts, schedule, photos, documents & more. The Post-PC era will see less importance on the home PC, while greater usability of portable devices will enable far more opportunities such as reading news & professional journals, time management, instant communications, e-mail & more. Much of the simpler tasks can now be handled on portable devices, allowing us to be anywhere for these tasks & unchaining us from the PC anchored to your desk. But, with microsoft already signaling it's lost in the mobile arena, windows phone hasn't gone anywhere by microsoft's own admission & their tablet hopes still years away, they are are quickly becoming yesterday's tech
Cheers !
Nonsense.
Apple Cloud services are provided mainly by Microsoft Azure platforms.
Yet again microsoft misses the boat, much as they did the cloud. Now, microsoft doesn't understand the Post-PC era, which doesn't mean that people will start dumping their PCs, but rather, PCs are not necessary as the digital hub. Apple's vision of the cloud, iCloud, takes prominence as the digital hub, ensuring that all devices connected to that user stay in sync, music, contacts, schedule, photos, documents & more. The Post-PC era will see less importance on the home PC, while greater usability of portable devices will enable far more opportunities such as reading news & professional journals, time management, instant communications, e-mail & more. Much of the simpler tasks can now be handled on portable devices, allowing us to be anywhere for these tasks & unchaining us from the PC anchored to your desk. But, with microsoft already signaling it's lost in the mobile arena, windows phone hasn't gone anywhere by microsoft's own admission & their tablet hopes still years away, they are are quickly becoming yesterday's tech
Cheers !
Nicely put. Once iOS 5 is in use with, syncing freedom, most people will function in a post-PC age, not a post-computer age. In the common vernacular, computing will refer to those activities that the iPad is maturing to accommodate more and more. No one thinks of computing as the translation that a microwave oven makes of input commands into a calibrated, timed execution of the magnetron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron) for example. Neither will they think of computing (or whatever term is employed) as sitting down at a desk, starting up this device and using a mouse and keyboard to meet their day-to-day computing needs.
Just imagine how many IT guys will loose their jobs once the world realizes the scam they have been into since the 80's(?).
Once (say) 90% of the people who use computers to work (that 90% which needs constant help to overcome the inherently excessive complexity of PCs) realize they can get away with a device that just works, a device that hides all the useless technicalities in a layer of abstraction. A device that shows to the user only what the user needs to know to operate. A device that gets the job done.
It doesn't need to be the iPad, but it's a pretty good start in the right direction I believe.
We developers can continue using our trucks to build that software, but regular office people or home users who check e-mail, write documents or use spreadsheets at most, they need something way more lean.
The Apple fanboys here and at sites like this one all seem to miss the fact that the iPad is just a toy when talking about teh post PC era...sure, it kicks the PCs ass when playing angery birds and watching reruns of House on hulu - but practical PRODUCTIVE usage is limited. With ios 5 everything is tied to iCloud which means that everything lives in Apple's data center...there is no way that I have found for corporate IT to disable that, not in exchange or SCCM 2012 and not in mass via any tool from Apple.
But its not just icloud, when your little ipad can produce usefull data visualizations with large sets as fast as I can on my PC with Excel and PowerPivot, give me a call...
The iPad is a PC replacment only for those who only consume and occasionally email. For teh rest of us, it is an accessory.
saying that the ipad replaces a PC is like saying that the neck tie replaces the button up shirt...it does not replace it -- it complements it.
Except that "us" is in the minority which "geeks" fail to realize.
I think cameras is also an apt analogy. Until point and shoots came, SLRs were the only option. The point and shoots were never as good as SLRs, and may never be. But for most people they are good enuf, and today they are a bigger market then the SLRs. SLRs will never die, but their market is more niche than mainstream. Similar will be the fate of full fledged PCs I believe, while tablets will become ubiquitous.
- typing this from an iPad.
I am one of those who Uses a Windows PC at work, has a MacBook at home, and am using an iPad now. My wife, and mom just love the iPad and it is all they need.
I think cameras is also an apt analogy. Until point and shoots came, SLRs were the only option. The point and shoots were never as good as SLRs, and may never be. But for most people they are good enuf, and today they are a bigger market then the SLRs. SLRs will never die, but their market is more niche than mainstream. Similar will be the fate of full fledged PCs I believe, while tablets will become ubiquitous.
- typing this from an iPad.
I am one of those who Uses a Windows PC at work, has a MacBook at home, and am using an iPad now. My wife, and mom just love the iPad and it is all they need.
So, you're outnumbered 2 to 1! Until my daughters left home, the odds were for me, even worse!
With full-frame imaging, more natural, high-fidelity (as in Retina-like) displays and interchangeable lenses, non-SLRs will in all likelihood take over before too long. Sad, I love the SLR myself. I'd like to be able to look into a viewfinder still though to frame a shot, feels more natural and less distracting to me. However, peripheral vision can be useful in framing a shot. \
"Frank Shaw, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, asserted in a post on the Official Microsoft Blog that the PC isn't going anywhere."
He's correct...the PC, ie windoze machine, is literally not going anywhere. It will simply sit there and die.
The PC isn't going anywhere. Graphic designers, accountants, print designers, gamers all need PC's and the tablet will never be able to handle the computing power or the screen size we need.
Utterly ridiculous statement - "will never" - that's just a stupid thing to say. Of course in the future they will have enough processing power, storage, pico projectors, wireless external monitors - you have no idea what the future holds. I know accountants who already use the iPad as their main input device when out with clients, and this in year two of a new device.
...He likened PCs to trucks, which were more common early on because farmers were early adopters of the automobile, but now are used by a smaller number of people. ...
But somehow Steve B. doesn't seem to appreciate the implied[*] connotation of PCs being like (the clunky?) trucks (of these farmers) .
[* cf. B&W TV series such as the Partridge Family ]
A brilliant comparison, indeed, setting the tenor for PC-market perception at one fell swoop.
However, I still believe full-size workstations will remain relevant (with evolving functionality) and necessary for serious design/development work in many areas.
I think that really depends on who that user is. Someone who already loves their iPad and doesn't seem to use their desktop or laptop much because of it, probably was never really using their computer for things much of substance.
For a lot of people who do actual pay-the-bills work on their computer, the iPad is of no use whatsoever. I'm in the latter camp. My iPad is a really fun toy, but it is not even remotely capable of doing any of my work.
Yes today the iPad can't do any of your work but in 3 to 5 years' time you will be having crow for lunch.
Remember what they said about the MacBook Air and vulture funds were selling down Apple's stocks as Jobs was introducing the Air and forward to today it is as good as a desktop, so go figure.
You buy shares in MS and I'll continue to buy in Apple then, no need to argue
I'm starting to believe that an open source OS (Linux? Android? Mozilla? Other?) will trounce Microsoft in the next 3 to 5 years. Whether iOS/OS X+ has a big future, not sure. I think if Jobs vanishes, that will be the *beginning* of the end for Apple.
And actually I think the most likely is that our devices will become thin clients (HTML5+?) to a network/cloud based system. In many ways they already are that iCloud is the extremely rudimentary beginning to a cluster of computing centers that is probably their best shot at remaining relevant in 5 to 15 years.
I think this is why HP bought webOS, but in the end they realized they could not build a desktop version of OS quickly or cheaply enough so they gave up.
.
I think you hit the nail with your comment. Regarding HP en webOS, I honoustly think there was a lot of pressure going on from Microsoft to let the idea of webOS PCs go. In the end HP did not want to take the risk. Maybe the spinoff will or will be bought by someone who wants to stand up to Microsoft (Can't think of a company that will)
As for post-PC vs PC+, the only real differences between the two are power and interface. As chips are miniaturised and battery tech improves, the first becomes irrelevant over time. As for interface, it's already easy as pie to add a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth if that's what you want. All peripherals can in fact be networked when the postPC matures, including going wirelessly into a setup that perfectly mimics the user experience of a desktop PC.
I wish people would pay me for this blather again LOL
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer strongly disagreed with Jobs. "Windows machines are not going to be trucks," he said.
can't wait for the day everybody in the industry points a stern finger of blame at him for the downsize of Miscrosoft. He may be a billionaire but his reputation and record would lie in tatters.
The idea that somehow PCs are going to go away is completely absurd. Can you imagine in offices all over the world people hunched over tablets prodding away with their chubby fingers at little screens covered in finger grease? Aside from the epic amounts of sore necks that would create, world productivity would drop by thousands of percent, and to what end?
Keyboards are the quickest way to input text, and anyone in an office needs to do that. A mouse or a wacom are vastly more precise than prodding at a screen with a finger. Having a separate, large screen which you never smear with finger grease at an ergonomic angle is obviously the only serious option, and having a box full of CPU and GPU power, and RAM is what any professional who works in CG or media production would need.
At home, sure, people can sit on their sofas and prod at their tablets to emails and play simple casual games, but that's where it ends. The moment someone needs to do actual work, they will fire up a PC.
Comments
So while the competitors think they will be successful creating a PC replacement (after all, its clear that they get their ideas largely from Apple), Apple is creating devices which are enhancements, not necessarily replacements for the PC.
For some people, like myself or probably most people on a forum like this one, an iPad is an enhancement. But I think that for quite a few people, an iPad is all that they will ever need or want. Some of the older generation comes to mind. Grandma is not going to order a bunch of parts from Newegg and build a souped up gaming machine with dual video cards and 24 GB of RAM to use as their main PC. Grandma is very likely scared to death of computers and might never even have touched a computer in their entire life. But, give an iPad to your grandmother and there's a good chance that she'll be messaging and video calling with her grandkids in no time. The iPad is of course technically speaking a computer, but it's also very much an appliance, which is partly why it's been so successful.
I think that there's a segment of the market which has stayed away from PC's. Those same people that might have been terrified of PC's and ignorant as to their usage can get a super user friendly iPad and use that as their main and only machine for surfing, emails and everything else that somebody chooses to do with their iPad. For these people, which I believe represents a big part of the market, they don't need or want a full "PC" because an iPad fulfills their needs and does it in a way that is better than anything else, thanks to it's next generation UI.
Other people who are content creators and professionals that rely on powerful desktops will continue to use them. PC's (both Mac & PC's) aren't going away anytime soon. The PC people who get offended by the usage of "Post-PC" are just being ignorant baboons because it doesn't mean that PC's (both Mac & PC) are disappearing anytime soon. The landscape is just shifting.
The new General Purpose computing device will be the tablet, or a very light notebook like the MBA.
Cheers !
Yet again microsoft misses the boat, much as they did the cloud. Now, microsoft doesn't understand the Post-PC era, which doesn't mean that people will start dumping their PCs, but rather, PCs are not necessary as the digital hub. Apple's vision of the cloud, iCloud, takes prominence as the digital hub, ensuring that all devices connected to that user stay in sync, music, contacts, schedule, photos, documents & more. The Post-PC era will see less importance on the home PC, while greater usability of portable devices will enable far more opportunities such as reading news & professional journals, time management, instant communications, e-mail & more. Much of the simpler tasks can now be handled on portable devices, allowing us to be anywhere for these tasks & unchaining us from the PC anchored to your desk. But, with microsoft already signaling it's lost in the mobile arena, windows phone hasn't gone anywhere by microsoft's own admission & their tablet hopes still years away, they are are quickly becoming yesterday's tech
Cheers !
Nonsense.
Apple Cloud services are provided mainly by Microsoft Azure platforms.
Yet again microsoft misses the boat, much as they did the cloud. Now, microsoft doesn't understand the Post-PC era, which doesn't mean that people will start dumping their PCs, but rather, PCs are not necessary as the digital hub. Apple's vision of the cloud, iCloud, takes prominence as the digital hub, ensuring that all devices connected to that user stay in sync, music, contacts, schedule, photos, documents & more. The Post-PC era will see less importance on the home PC, while greater usability of portable devices will enable far more opportunities such as reading news & professional journals, time management, instant communications, e-mail & more. Much of the simpler tasks can now be handled on portable devices, allowing us to be anywhere for these tasks & unchaining us from the PC anchored to your desk. But, with microsoft already signaling it's lost in the mobile arena, windows phone hasn't gone anywhere by microsoft's own admission & their tablet hopes still years away, they are are quickly becoming yesterday's tech
Cheers !
Nicely put. Once iOS 5 is in use with, syncing freedom, most people will function in a post-PC age, not a post-computer age. In the common vernacular, computing will refer to those activities that the iPad is maturing to accommodate more and more. No one thinks of computing as the translation that a microwave oven makes of input commands into a calibrated, timed execution of the magnetron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron) for example. Neither will they think of computing (or whatever term is employed) as sitting down at a desk, starting up this device and using a mouse and keyboard to meet their day-to-day computing needs.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-08-03/
Once (say) 90% of the people who use computers to work (that 90% which needs constant help to overcome the inherently excessive complexity of PCs) realize they can get away with a device that just works, a device that hides all the useless technicalities in a layer of abstraction. A device that shows to the user only what the user needs to know to operate. A device that gets the job done.
It doesn't need to be the iPad, but it's a pretty good start in the right direction I believe.
We developers can continue using our trucks to build that software, but regular office people or home users who check e-mail, write documents or use spreadsheets at most, they need something way more lean.
JM2Cs
Perhaps Dilbert summed it up best:
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-08-03/
Dilbert always sums it up best
The Apple fanboys here and at sites like this one all seem to miss the fact that the iPad is just a toy when talking about teh post PC era...sure, it kicks the PCs ass when playing angery birds and watching reruns of House on hulu - but practical PRODUCTIVE usage is limited. With ios 5 everything is tied to iCloud which means that everything lives in Apple's data center...there is no way that I have found for corporate IT to disable that, not in exchange or SCCM 2012 and not in mass via any tool from Apple.
But its not just icloud, when your little ipad can produce usefull data visualizations with large sets as fast as I can on my PC with Excel and PowerPivot, give me a call...
The iPad is a PC replacment only for those who only consume and occasionally email. For teh rest of us, it is an accessory.
saying that the ipad replaces a PC is like saying that the neck tie replaces the button up shirt...it does not replace it -- it complements it.
Except that "us" is in the minority which "geeks" fail to realize.
- typing this from an iPad.
I am one of those who Uses a Windows PC at work, has a MacBook at home, and am using an iPad now. My wife, and mom just love the iPad and it is all they need.
I think cameras is also an apt analogy. Until point and shoots came, SLRs were the only option. The point and shoots were never as good as SLRs, and may never be. But for most people they are good enuf, and today they are a bigger market then the SLRs. SLRs will never die, but their market is more niche than mainstream. Similar will be the fate of full fledged PCs I believe, while tablets will become ubiquitous.
- typing this from an iPad.
I am one of those who Uses a Windows PC at work, has a MacBook at home, and am using an iPad now. My wife, and mom just love the iPad and it is all they need.
So, you're outnumbered 2 to 1! Until my daughters left home, the odds were for me, even worse!
With full-frame imaging, more natural, high-fidelity (as in Retina-like) displays and interchangeable lenses, non-SLRs will in all likelihood take over before too long. Sad, I love the SLR myself. I'd like to be able to look into a viewfinder still though to frame a shot, feels more natural and less distracting to me. However, peripheral vision can be useful in framing a shot.
"Frank Shaw, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, asserted in a post on the Official Microsoft Blog that the PC isn't going anywhere."
He's correct...the PC, ie windoze machine, is literally not going anywhere. It will simply sit there and die.
The PC isn't going anywhere. Graphic designers, accountants, print designers, gamers all need PC's and the tablet will never be able to handle the computing power or the screen size we need.
Utterly ridiculous statement - "will never" - that's just a stupid thing to say. Of course in the future they will have enough processing power, storage, pico projectors, wireless external monitors - you have no idea what the future holds. I know accountants who already use the iPad as their main input device when out with clients, and this in year two of a new device.
...He likened PCs to trucks, which were more common early on because farmers were early adopters of the automobile, but now are used by a smaller number of people. ...
But somehow Steve B. doesn't seem to appreciate the implied[*] connotation of PCs being like (the clunky?) trucks (of these farmers) .
[* cf. B&W TV series such as the Partridge Family
A brilliant comparison, indeed, setting the tenor for PC-market perception at one fell swoop.
However, I still believe full-size workstations will remain relevant (with evolving functionality) and necessary for serious design/development work in many areas.
I think that really depends on who that user is. Someone who already loves their iPad and doesn't seem to use their desktop or laptop much because of it, probably was never really using their computer for things much of substance.
For a lot of people who do actual pay-the-bills work on their computer, the iPad is of no use whatsoever. I'm in the latter camp. My iPad is a really fun toy, but it is not even remotely capable of doing any of my work.
Yes today the iPad can't do any of your work but in 3 to 5 years' time you will be having crow for lunch.
Remember what they said about the MacBook Air and vulture funds were selling down Apple's stocks as Jobs was introducing the Air and forward to today it is as good as a desktop, so go figure.
You buy shares in MS and I'll continue to buy in Apple then, no need to argue
I'm starting to believe that an open source OS (Linux? Android? Mozilla? Other?) will trounce Microsoft in the next 3 to 5 years. Whether iOS/OS X+ has a big future, not sure. I think if Jobs vanishes, that will be the *beginning* of the end for Apple.
And actually I think the most likely is that our devices will become thin clients (HTML5+?) to a network/cloud based system. In many ways they already are that iCloud is the extremely rudimentary beginning to a cluster of computing centers that is probably their best shot at remaining relevant in 5 to 15 years.
...
I think this is why HP bought webOS, but in the end they realized they could not build a desktop version of OS quickly or cheaply enough so they gave up.
.
I think you hit the nail with your comment. Regarding HP en webOS, I honoustly think there was a lot of pressure going on from Microsoft to let the idea of webOS PCs go. In the end HP did not want to take the risk. Maybe the spinoff will or will be bought by someone who wants to stand up to Microsoft (Can't think of a company that will)
I wish people would pay me for this blather again LOL
Yes today the iPad can't do any of your work but in 3 to 5 years' time you will be having crow for lunch..
if it maintains its tightly locked down environment, there wont be any crow to eat
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer strongly disagreed with Jobs. "Windows machines are not going to be trucks," he said.
can't wait for the day everybody in the industry points a stern finger of blame at him for the downsize of Miscrosoft. He may be a billionaire but his reputation and record would lie in tatters.
Keyboards are the quickest way to input text, and anyone in an office needs to do that. A mouse or a wacom are vastly more precise than prodding at a screen with a finger. Having a separate, large screen which you never smear with finger grease at an ergonomic angle is obviously the only serious option, and having a box full of CPU and GPU power, and RAM is what any professional who works in CG or media production would need.
At home, sure, people can sit on their sofas and prod at their tablets to emails and play simple casual games, but that's where it ends. The moment someone needs to do actual work, they will fire up a PC.