I spent last week at the annual Intel analyst conference and was impressed by what I saw, but I started connecting the dots between what Apple is doing with the iPad, Google is doing with the Nexus one, Microsoft is doing with the Zune and Xbox, and Intel is doing with its Atom/Moblin efforts, and I had an epiphany. I checked my meds and confirmed I hadn’t missed any anti-epiphany medication I was supposed to be taking and concluded that the PC model that created the market appears to be dying, and that we simply may be waiting for a definitive moment to say it is dead.
The moment you consider a Zune or XBox as a future-pointing factor, you should check your Epiphany monitor in addition to your meds.
The moment you say "appears to be dying" but fail to provide a time period in the same breath is a sign you should then triple check your meds and monitors.
Your conclusion that the Consumer Tech industry is moving away from "complex PCs" to function-specific vertical appliances is wrong.
What you are seeing is simply the advancement of the consumer market overall. PCs are not dying, consumer "gadgets" are just evolving. "Complex PCs" have never been the exact same feeding trough as phones and music players. That iPhone is the evolved rotary dial wall hanging kitchen phone, that Zune is an evolved Sony Walkman.
Sure, there will be more vertical appliances. And these will be increasingly more "computer-like", but there will also be "Integration Systems" to tie these things together for the consumer. There will always be businesses needing work-stations, and there will always be "power"/"advanced"/"hobbyist" enthusiasts buying complex systems.
Replacement, for profit, of all in one systems, which where already hamstrung people people trying to control what hardware you had, and what was installed, with dozens different "specialty" devices, none of them cross compatible, none of them able to do everything, and only able to share, if at all, what the company selling them want you to share between them. In short, instead of buying a PC, and doing what ever you want with it, and **only** getting the specialty item, if you need one, you now have to buy a dozen different things, all which only do one thing actually well, none of which push the edge of technology, innovation, or new ideas nearly as hard as PCs have, and all beholden to the assumptions, expectations, and intentional limitations, placed on them by data carriers, manufacturers, software companies, and anyone else that wants to muck around with what you can actually use them for.
In short, it may be someone's dream, but its not that of anyone that gives a frack about having "control" over their own purchases, or what they get to do with them. And Apple, with their, "You can't install that, we didn't approve it!!", BS is a prime example of where this "improvement", and the supposed death of the PC is going. What is needed is a solution to fix the issues PCs have, but that itself has been nearly abandoned, in this rush to make a special game system, you can't upgrade, a special phone, you can't upgrade, a special this, that, or other thing, **which you can't upgrade**, and not one of which you can keep what you already have, if you buy a new one, since a) the new model won't run the same programs, in many cases, and b) only what the company considers "important" can be copied.
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The Death of the PC Model and a Tablet That Could Crush the iPad
Posted by: Rob Enderle February 15, 2010 05:00 AMI spent last week at the annual Intel analyst conference and was impressed by what I saw, but I started connecting the dots between what Apple is doing with the iPad, Google is doing with the Nexus one, Microsoft is doing with the Zune and Xbox, and Intel is doing with its Atom/Moblin efforts, and I had an epiphany. I checked my meds and confirmed I hadn’t missed any anti-epiphany medication I was supposed to be taking and concluded that the PC model that created the market appears to be dying, and that we simply may be waiting for a definitive moment to say it is dead.
The moment you say "appears to be dying" but fail to provide a time period in the same breath is a sign you should then triple check your meds and monitors.
Your conclusion that the Consumer Tech industry is moving away from "complex PCs" to function-specific vertical appliances is wrong.
What you are seeing is simply the advancement of the consumer market overall. PCs are not dying, consumer "gadgets" are just evolving. "Complex PCs" have never been the exact same feeding trough as phones and music players. That iPhone is the evolved rotary dial wall hanging kitchen phone, that Zune is an evolved Sony Walkman.
Sure, there will be more vertical appliances. And these will be increasingly more "computer-like", but there will also be "Integration Systems" to tie these things together for the consumer. There will always be businesses needing work-stations, and there will always be "power"/"advanced"/"hobbyist" enthusiasts buying complex systems.
In short, it may be someone's dream, but its not that of anyone that gives a frack about having "control" over their own purchases, or what they get to do with them. And Apple, with their, "You can't install that, we didn't approve it!!", BS is a prime example of where this "improvement", and the supposed death of the PC is going. What is needed is a solution to fix the issues PCs have, but that itself has been nearly abandoned, in this rush to make a special game system, you can't upgrade, a special phone, you can't upgrade, a special this, that, or other thing, **which you can't upgrade**, and not one of which you can keep what you already have, if you buy a new one, since a) the new model won't run the same programs, in many cases, and b) only what the company considers "important" can be copied.
No fracking thanks.