Steve Jobs at D8: ‘PCs are going to be like trucks’
Yep. Not dead, not by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly not as ubiquitous as other devices.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2010/06/02/steve-jobs-at...
Yep. Not dead, not by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly not as ubiquitous as other devices.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2010/06/02/steve-jobs-at...
Tablets are great for small, specialized tasks. They are great because they are lightweight, have good battery life and can be manipulated simply.
However I can't help but think that they are not fit for every job, just like a small city car isn't something you want of you have a spouse and three children. Multitasking, for example, isn't practical on a tablet : I have yet to see a tablet that allows me to chat with video or text while doing research on the web or browsing my mail, for example. And doing these tasks simultaneously isn't some kind of niche or power user activity. I could find countless simple things which are as of today only doable on tablet by going through much pain. Moreover, I think that one of the biggest advantages of tablets is that because they're somewhat more intuitive, they can reach a wider audience, notably people who are less computer-literate. But making technology accessible to our elders or less educated people is a good thing, but let's not forget that the next generations are born in technology and will be more accustomed to using it in its various forms, including the more "complex" PCs (which they will most likely have to use for their work anyway).
All in all, tablets and PC will both evolve, and the gap between them will be filled in. We are already seeing bigger screen, keyboards, more powerful CPUs / GPUs on tablets (which is exactly what the core i3 MS tablet will be), and on the other hand, lowered power consumption CPUs, better battery lives, weight reductions and smaller, touch-sensitive screens on PCs (again, there are a lot of products more or less matching that description).
I don't think the PC will die anytime soon.
I'm completely computer literate and use my iPad exclusively when at home; I have stacks of laptops that don't get any use anymore. Its just more convenient to use for what I do at home, I will not be replacing my home PCs for a very very long time. And...kids today will grow up using mostly iPads and facebook, they won't experience the joys of a BASIC command prompt like we did. Given the proliferation of canned content, they are unlikely to get their hands really dirty with flexible/configurable computing until they reach college!