Microsoft exec says PC 'not even middle-aged,' rejects post-PC label
A Microsoft executive has spoken up in defense of the PC, insisting that the industry is in the "PC plus" era and rejecting the label of "Post-PC."
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.
According to him, new devices such as eReaders, tablets, smartphones "aren't PC killers, but instead are complementary devices." Shaw argues that PCs aren't going away because there is a set of important things that they do "uniquely well," while noting that PCs are rapidly improving at the things that other devices do.
"Non-PC" objects help people communicate and consume, but they are unable to create and collaborate as well as PCs, the executive continued. "And that?s why one should take any reports of the death of the PC with a rather large grain of salt," he said.
Shaw went on to describe Microsoft's vision of the future: "increasingly powerful devices of all kinds will connect with cloud services to make it all the more easier for us social beings to create, communicate, collaborate and consume information." He also added that the vision will "become clearer" in mid-September at the company's BUILD conference.
He concluded his post by again dismissing the post-PC label. "We think it?s far more accurate to say that the 30-year-old PC isn?t even middle aged yet, and about to take up snowboarding," Shaw wrote.
Microsoft's position greatly differs from Apple's belief that the transition from the PC is inevitable. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said last year that the iPad may eventually replace the laptop.
"The transformation of the PC to new form factors like the tablet is going to make some people uneasy because the PC has taken us a long ways," he said. "The PC is brilliant.. and we like to talk about the post-PC era, but it's uncomfortable."
Jobs compared the transition to changes in the U.S. automobile industry. 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. Responding to assertions that the iPad is limited in creating content, Jobs said that "time takes care of lots of these things," adding that software advances will become more powerful as they add more features.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer strongly disagreed with Jobs. "Windows machines are not going to be trucks," he said.
Earlier this year, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie questioned whether tablets would be more than just a fad. "Today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between (a PC and a smartphone)," he said. "Personally, I don't know whether that space will be a persistent one or not."
Apple will make a significant step away from PCs this fall when it releases iOS 5, which has a "PC-free" design. "Perhaps iOS 5?s paramount feature is that it?s built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the Post-PC revolution that Apple is leading," Jobs said.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has said that it views tablets as PCs. The company is betting that, over time, PCs, tablets and smartphoens will come together into a "unified ecosystem."
"Windows will be everywhere on every device without compromise," Ballmer said in January.
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.
According to him, new devices such as eReaders, tablets, smartphones "aren't PC killers, but instead are complementary devices." Shaw argues that PCs aren't going away because there is a set of important things that they do "uniquely well," while noting that PCs are rapidly improving at the things that other devices do.
"Non-PC" objects help people communicate and consume, but they are unable to create and collaborate as well as PCs, the executive continued. "And that?s why one should take any reports of the death of the PC with a rather large grain of salt," he said.
Shaw went on to describe Microsoft's vision of the future: "increasingly powerful devices of all kinds will connect with cloud services to make it all the more easier for us social beings to create, communicate, collaborate and consume information." He also added that the vision will "become clearer" in mid-September at the company's BUILD conference.
He concluded his post by again dismissing the post-PC label. "We think it?s far more accurate to say that the 30-year-old PC isn?t even middle aged yet, and about to take up snowboarding," Shaw wrote.
Microsoft's position greatly differs from Apple's belief that the transition from the PC is inevitable. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said last year that the iPad may eventually replace the laptop.
"The transformation of the PC to new form factors like the tablet is going to make some people uneasy because the PC has taken us a long ways," he said. "The PC is brilliant.. and we like to talk about the post-PC era, but it's uncomfortable."
Jobs compared the transition to changes in the U.S. automobile industry. 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. Responding to assertions that the iPad is limited in creating content, Jobs said that "time takes care of lots of these things," adding that software advances will become more powerful as they add more features.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer strongly disagreed with Jobs. "Windows machines are not going to be trucks," he said.
Earlier this year, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie questioned whether tablets would be more than just a fad. "Today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between (a PC and a smartphone)," he said. "Personally, I don't know whether that space will be a persistent one or not."
Apple will make a significant step away from PCs this fall when it releases iOS 5, which has a "PC-free" design. "Perhaps iOS 5?s paramount feature is that it?s built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the Post-PC revolution that Apple is leading," Jobs said.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has said that it views tablets as PCs. The company is betting that, over time, PCs, tablets and smartphoens will come together into a "unified ecosystem."
"Windows will be everywhere on every device without compromise," Ballmer said in January.
Comments
Did this guy used to work for Kodak's film division by any chance?
"Windows will be everywhere on every device without compromise," Ballmer said in January."
Great quote. This will be up there with Michael Dell's 'give the share holders their money back' quote soon.
A Microsoft executive has spoken up in defense of the PC, insisting that the industry is in the "PC plus" era and rejecting the label of "Post-PC."
Is this the same "plus" HP talked about when they were releasing their TouchPad?!
Is this the same "plus" HP talked about when they were releasing their TouchPad?!
Or the same "plus" HP had in mind when they quit the entire PC industry while they were the market leaders?
Some of these people should read the news instead of their own talking points.
Encouraged by Ballmer's words ... AAPL might be a good buy tomorrow if it drops again or even stays where it is long enough. The P/E Ratio is ludicrous.
Let's be real here, folks. No matter how much Apple Kool-Aid you drink, PCs, in any form (remember that Macs are PCs too), aren't going anywhere for a long while. People who do real work, in any field (film production, music composition, web site and application development, graphics work, the list goes on) require the basic idea of a desktop (laptop, desktop, all in one) in order to get things done. Without a mouse and keyboard and multi-window user interface, people who use computers to get things done won't ever consider a tablet over a work machine. Sure, for Mom and Pop who just browse the internet and email with others, a tablet may fit the bill. But you can't discount hundreds of millions of machines being used for work other than the basics of computing; sure, maybe in twenty years things will be different, but the traditional PC won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Sure but my bet is on those 'trucks' as SJ called them being more and more Macs and less and less MS boxes.
Or the same "plus" HP had in mind when they quit the entire PC industry while they were the market leaders?
Some of these people should read the news instead of their own talking points.
HP did not quit the PC business, they are exploring spinning off consumer PC's. This process may take 2 years.
They did quit the Post-PC business post haste, as witnessed by the fire sale on TouchPads!
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.
Microsoft has already made it clear there shouldn't be much difference between a tablet and a PC, and will hopefully success with Windows 8 as long as they avoid just strapping on a touch layer onto a desktop OS.
HP did not quit the PC business, they are exploring spinning off consumer PC's. This process may take 2 years.
They did quit the Post-PC business post haste, as witnessed by the fire sale on TouchPads!
Semantics though. They quit just as IBM did. It's just a matter of timing now.
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.
That's what Macs are for.
PCs will become more like tablets (gaining simplification and ease of use), tablets will become more like PC (gaining more features), but HP wasn't very good at either in the grand scheme of things.
Microsoft has already made it clear there shouldn't be much difference between a tablet and a PC, and will hopefully success with Windows 8 as long as they avoid just strapping on a touch layer onto a desktop OS.
Are you going to be betting real money on that theory?
Also, popular need is really what the term post-PC is referring to, at the moment at least. My iPad doesn't run Mathematica (standalone) and so I need my desktop computer. However, many, many users do not need such a capability and so, the post-PC era is as good as here.
Interestingly though, the iPad does run Mathematica in the form of a window in Safari to the Wolfram web site in the guise of Wolfram Alpha. Cloud based computing. Once I can perform functions on my own data, the iPad will act as a window on such rich possibilities. (Apple ought, I believe, to culture Wolfram and other inspirational web entities
To sum up, many of us here would not consider that personally, we are entering a post-PC age. However, to many users we are effectively there (or close with iOS not far away).
All the best.
That's what Macs are for.
Ah so post pc era excludes Macs then? I see...well anyway back in the real world, Windows will continue to dominate. I see the iOS as a bubble...heres why, nothing else like it can gain traction in the way it has -- android is fractured like hell, Windows Mobile is an after thought and RIM is a laughing stock...
IOS is a walled garden and they never last, look at Prodigy, AOL, Friendster, and lately RIM, all walled gardens and all collapsed and collapsing...
Ah so post pc era excludes Macs then? I see...well anyway back in the real world, Windows will continue to dominate. I see the iOS as a bubble...heres why, nothing else like it can gain traction in the way it has -- android is fractured like hell, Windows Mobile is an after thought and RIM is a laughing stock...
IOS is a walled garden and they never last, look at Prodigy, AOL, Friendster, and lately RIM, all walled gardens and all collapsed and collapsing...
You buy shares in MS and I'll continue to buy in Apple then, no need to argue
Ah so post pc era excludes Macs then? I see...well anyway back in the real world, Windows will continue to dominate. I see the iOS as a bubble...heres why, nothing else like it can gain traction in the way it has -- android is fractured like hell, Windows Mobile is an after thought and RIM is a laughing stock...
IOS is a walled garden and they never last, look at Prodigy, AOL, Friendster, and lately RIM, all walled gardens and all collapsed and collapsing...
I just do not understand the term 'walled garden' as anything rational! What the heck are you talking about? I have a good friend who is writing software for the iPad, 3 applications - and I run that software as a beta tester. He's an independent developer and PhD candidate. He is not some Apple minion. He does not live behind a walled garden, he lives in the real world working on real-world solutions.
I haven't had a virus on a Mac since about 1987 and to the best of my knowledge have never had one on my iPad. Is that what you mean by 'walled garden', because in respect of secure, forward thinking computing, the term is stupid?!
- Anything a tablet can't do now because it doesn't have the CPU/GPU power, just wait until the next version. Eventually it'll be able to do it. The performance gap between tablet and laptop performance will close too, just like it has between desktop and laptop. Very few people need to choose a workstation over a laptop today.
- Touch is a superior interface to the mouse/trackpad. Touch is direct, the mouse/trackpad is indirect.
- The whole physical keyboard thing is totally overblown. Most people don't type much. This has gotten a lot of press because the press happen to be a subset of the population who need to type a lot, fast. People got by with handwriting for centuries before keyboards became ubiquitous (and typing only really became ubiquitous with the PC and most people still can't do it very well). You can always add a bluetooth keyboard for when you're typing that novel anyway.
- They can make bigger tablets. Tablets could be paired with large external displays. Etc. There are a lot of ways to accommodate professionals.
- Most professionals I know maximise all their apps anyway. Not sure windows are really the incredible productivity feature people think they are.
- Programming isn't inherently tied to typing in code. In fact, that's a pretty bad way to do it.