Google: Desktop PCs to be "irrelevant" in 3 years
By Christopher Null
.If you're reading this on a computer, you're about to be lost in the past, at least according to a Google Europe executive, John Herlihy, who has proclaimed the PC era just about over.

By 2013, says Herlihy, the desktop PC will be irrelevant, and the smart phone will be the platform of choice for most Internet use.

Silicon Republic says Herlihy's audience, a "Digital Landscapes" conference at University College Dublin, was "baffled" by the statement, although many a pundit has made this prediction in recent months. Other Google executives have also posited that the company's primary focus going forward will be on mobile technologies.

It's unclear how much Google will focus on phones versus other mobile devices such as laptops and nascent tablet devices like the Apple iPad, but it's clear that in the long term, all PC-based devices are at risk of being made irrelevant by more pocket-friendly machinery.

But is three years being too aggressive? The pace of innovation is blistering in the smart phone space (remember that just three years ago there was no iPhone and no Android OS), but will the advances in the next three years be enough to make computers as we know them obsolete? It's obvious that there will still be a market for the desktop (or at least the laptop) come 2013 - the need for larger screens for corporate work will alone ensure that - but how big will that market be, and is it ultimately as doomed as the Silicon Valley bigshots would have us believe?


http://ca.tech.yahoo.com/...ticle/4379

I will never choose to access the internet just from my Blackberry. That stuff is terrible on my vision.

I think PCs will always be around, but that they'll be niche (I give it 5 to 7 years though, but I've always been wrong at predicting this stuff.)


We'll always have a need for a sizable screen, and some of us prefer
to type on real keyboards, but the computers that we use will probably be
highly portable.

I honestly think if Apple wants their iMac to remain unchallenged or relevant
that they turn the entire screen for the iMac (which also serves as the CPU), into a true tablet PC. You type on it like a regular iMac, but when you're ready to go somewhere, you just pick up the screen and carry it with you (as it would be touch-screen as well). This obviously wouldn't work with a 20+ inch model , but certainly the could develop a smaller 15" model that does that. it would be amazingly portable.


Portability is going to be the future. All printers will probably be wireless (the trend has been this way for years).

The next decade will look amazing compared to this one.

Vendetta1 said:

Exactly.

In three years I'll be too busy cruising around in my flying car to notice.

The very idea is stupid in theory alone. Utter nonsense, especially coming from a company that is constantly trying to develop and push out new desktop/laptop PC products like a browser, chat, etc.

I can see what they are saying but in 3 years?
Too soon.

squirrelgrease said:

and food will be able to talk

get ready for a next generation of cross-eyed iphone users. or go back to school to become an optometrist. believe me you'll be in demand. $

Yeah, I'm sure people will be really happy to do all the video editing, image manipulation, music recording and their writing assignments on a phone screen.

I'm sorry but not even laptops are optimal for any of those.tasks. You'll need a big enough monitor and a keyboard that can be moved around. Not to mention only desktop PCs and Macs really have the horsepower for multimedia production in a smooth enough manner.
[Edited 3/7/10 3:10am]

ZombieKitten said:

food has been talking to me for many years now...

PC's (And Macs) will NEVER die!!!!!

Yes, I said it.

The desktop PC will never die.

But it will probably go back to its original purpose as a work-related device for business and corporate use and as a word processor for students. There's just no way that someone will use a smart phone or even a netbook to do Excel spreadsheets, and you need a desktop to sync other smart devices, which will be particularly true when desktop manufacturing picks up. Plus all those home businesses need a desktop PC to do their basic work.

Bur for listening to music, watching YouTube videos, and doing all of the Facebook/Twitter stuff, that will probably be better served in the future by using smart phone and netbook/tablet devices.

TheVoid said:

i dont think desktops will be completely gone.

I don't think it's ridiculous at all, if you think about it. You don't have to limit your thoughts to just the phones screen and QWERTY.

I imagine you will have a keyboard and mouse hooked to your TV, your phone will act as the computer. Access it on the phone's screen and QWERTY when you are mobile, dock it when you get home and use the TV and keyboard, but the phone will still be the computer part. Hell, I doubt you'll even need to dock it, it will automatically switch to the TV whenever it is in range, then switch back when it is not. Optical drives are becoming a thing of the past...it will all be flash based. That includes TV's, most all TV's sold now have a USB port, and eventually it will be wireless anyway. Movies and such don't need discs anymore...that will all be on demand streaming..it's already starting.

I totally agree. The smartphone, in 10 years, is going to be used for essentially everything...your debit and credit transactions, filling out forms at doctor offices, unlocking your home and car locks, starting your car, housing ALL your music, playing music in your car, ears, home...watching security cameras in your home remotely, remote control just about everything you own, etc. etc....

Make no mistake, it will be the advertising nightmare you expect it to be also, why in the world do you think corporate america is so behind the tech??? It is a DIRECT line, to you the consumer, as never seen before.

It's a brave new dystopia we are entering into.

JerseyKRS said:

I actually foresee a day when we'll be able to carry around flash-card looking devices that are full fledged computers which we can just plug into a port on a screen somwhere---it would be ridiculously portable, and actually not unforeseeable. Look at how much the cell phone shrank in the last 15 years. I mean, the iPhone is the size that it is not because of design limitations, but because that's the size people like to work with.

I don't think you'll ever want to get rid of a sexy beast for specialized computing (photoshop, design, etc.), but that sexy beast certain will shrink and become more portable.

ZombieKitten said:

"Eat me."

novabrkr said:

Co-sign.

Vendetta1 said:

Exactly. I need a sizable screen if I'm going to enjoy internet porn. And I certainly doubt that's going to change as I get older.

im experiencing futuristic visions. and imagining new local laws and ordinances

TheVoid said:

I couldn't agree more.

I just don't give a fuck...I'll work with whatever is available...

Vendetta1 said:

Right?!?!?

thejason said:

you know what I'm saying? I'll watch porn on whatever.

Never owned a cell phone, never plan to

and if I could take the internet with me everywhere I'd never get anything done

Peer pressure is a bitch.

We can shun it for only too long untill,,,,,we look at BBerry like folks look at Ipod now; essential

With that said, I'm not that comfortable conducting my work/business from "BBerry".

TheVoid said:

you just need a laptop that will connect easily to a multi use monitor.

squirrelgrease said:

Nonsense. Why would I give up my 22" inch screen 4 some 2" inch device?

Graycap23 said:

You are talking about PC's still right?

Fuck the iPad.