tablets How tablets can save the PC

[Ice_Blue]

Interesting read.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. ? Winston Churchill

These are tough times for the personal computer: The 30-something device that everyone used to covet is being crowded out by younger objects of our affection. Time for a makeover.

Visionaries like Microsoft?s Bill Gates and Apple?s Steve Jobs started a revolution by imagining that computers ? at the time, massive, room-filling machines that basically just did arithmetic ? could become indispensable tools for the masses. PCs led to a world filled with powerful electronics we could take anywhere: Desktops became laptops, phones became mobile and then smart. And now there are tablets.

PCs aren?t going to disappear, but they are no longer the most important computer we use. Many people carry three computers now: smartphone, tablet and laptop. The laptop is becoming the one we use least. Even some of our enduring PC use is reflex and habit. If we lost the use of a laptop, would life grind to a halt? Not with all these other options.

PC sales had their worst quarter ever in the first three months of this year, down almost 14 percent over the same 2012 period and the first full quarter when computers shipped with Windows 8. Analyst Bob O?Donnell from top research firm IDC connected these dots. Per Yahoo News:

At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market,? O?Donnell explains. ?While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices. Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market.

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I urge you to read the complete article.

This is not an anti-Windows rant.

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http://blogs.reuters...an-save-the-pc/

[Dot Matrix]

Ha! OEMs innovate? That'll be the day.

But I like this. We're not in a Post-PC world, we're in a Post Traditional-PC world.

[Growled Member]

I actually think of my smartphone as a mini computer. I can do most of the stuff I would do on a "real" computer. I'm really not sure the use of Post PC term is accurate.