They are going to start phasing out laptops, and moving to tablets full time. It's all about convienace and easy of use. All of my computers are Macs, and I would not trade them for anything else in the world. To me, they just run allot better than a Windows PC, so it is worth the money that I paid for them.

shorttrini said:

They are going to start phasing out laptops, and moving to tablets full time. It's all about convienace and easy of use. All of my computers are Macs, and I would not trade them for anything else in the world. To me, they just run allot better than a Windows PC, so it is worth the money that I paid for them.

You mean, like, touch screens? That's not going to happen for a long, long time. Most computer users still prefer traditional keyboards. I imagine you can attach an external full size keyboard to a tablet, but most of them also have slightly smaller screen, and a lot of people prefer a larger screen, too. The market is going to be filled with all kinds of options for a very long time, and that's they way it should be.

Cerebus said:

shorttrini said:

They are going to start phasing out laptops, and moving to tablets full time. It's all about convienace and easy of use. All of my computers are Macs, and I would not trade them for anything else in the world. To me, they just run allot better than a Windows PC, so it is worth the money that I paid for them.

You mean, like, touch screens? That's not going to happen for a long, long time. Most computer users still prefer traditional keyboards. I imagine you can attach an external full size keyboard to a tablet, but most of them also have slightly smaller screen, and a lot of people prefer a larger screen, too. The market is going to be filled with all kinds of options for a very long time, and that's they way it should be.

My brother's computer is a touch screen and he has had it for about a year, so it is all ready happening. As for the phasing out of laptops, in favor of tablets? I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years.

shorttrini said:

Cerebus said:

You mean, like, touch screens? That's not going to happen for a long, long time. Most computer users still prefer traditional keyboards. I imagine you can attach an external full size keyboard to a tablet, but most of them also have slightly smaller screen, and a lot of people prefer a larger screen, too. The market is going to be filled with all kinds of options for a very long time, and that's they way it should be.

My brother's computer is a touch screen and he has had it for about a year, so it is all ready happening. As for the phasing out of laptops, in favor of tablets? I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years.

I would not bet $$$ on that.

Graycap23 said:

shorttrini said:

My brother's computer is a touch screen and he has had it for about a year, so it is all ready happening. As for the phasing out of laptops, in favor of tablets? I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years.

I would not bet $$$ on that.

shorttrini said:

Cerebus said:

You mean, like, touch screens? That's not going to happen for a long, long time. Most computer users still prefer traditional keyboards. I imagine you can attach an external full size keyboard to a tablet, but most of them also have slightly smaller screen, and a lot of people prefer a larger screen, too. The market is going to be filled with all kinds of options for a very long time, and that's they way it should be.

My brother's computer is a touch screen and he has had it for about a year, so it is all ready happening. As for the phasing out of laptops, in favor of tablets? I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years.

I don't mean this to sound rude or flippant, but what does your brother's computer have to do with anything? There is an entire generation, closer to two, who grew up with traditional keyboards. For them, that IS computing. For some of those people even laptop keayboards are uncomfortable (that's why manufacturers continue finding a ways to keep them as large as possible). Those people are going to be buying traditional computing options for at least the next twenty years, probably longer. There may be a shift towards more touch screen computing, but traditional is not going away any time soon. Not until the current generation who grew up with small ass texting keyboards, iphones/smartphones and touchscreens (including tablets) are the only people buying computers. To do otherwise would lose manufacturers money, and you can rest assured that they will never do that.

yeah, not to mention that virtually all businesses run on computers, I don't see full sized ones going anywhere any time soon.

It would be a serious drag to type up a 20 page proposal on a tablet or to have to reach out to my screen to type it!

if i could afford it right now and didn't feel bad about illegally downloading music, then yah. where's my valentine's day gift anybody? does the shit even play music? "yous a dumb bitch!"

[Edited 1/31/13 11:20am]

I was tired of Windows 8 touchscreen notebook in 72 hours; in a work setting, its not the most efficient way to do things. (IMHO) Though it should be pointed out, Win 8 is poorly designed. I would think voice activated software would be more important than touchscreen technology for a desktop / notebook. Steve Jobs explained by the Newton bombed, at the end of the day people wanted a freak-in keyboard. Tablets do a lot of things very well but I don't think they are meant as a replacement for desktop/notebook. At that the desktop will go before the notebook, I think.

Cerebus said:

shorttrini said:

My brother's computer is a touch screen and he has had it for about a year, so it is all ready happening. As for the phasing out of laptops, in favor of tablets? I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years.

I don't mean this to sound rude or flippant, but what does your brother's computer have to do with anything? There is an entire generation, closer to two, who grew up with traditional keyboards. For them, that IS computing. For some of those people even laptop keayboards are uncomfortable (that's why manufacturers continue finding a ways to keep them as large as possible). Those people are going to be buying traditional computing options for at least the next twenty years, probably longer. There may be a shift towards more touch screen computing, but traditional is not going away any time soon. Not until the current generation who grew up with small ass texting keyboards, iphones/smartphones and touchscreens (including tablets) are the only people buying computers. To do otherwise would lose manufacturers money, and you can rest assured that they will never do that.

It has everything to do with it, because he has had a touch screen desktop for the last 2 years.Touch screens and tablet form computers are coming, whether we like it or not. We live in a more mobile world than ever before. Nobody, want to stay tied to their desktop or laptop, especially when, companies are making computers the size and weight of a book. It's called convenience. Convenience, beats out everything else, every time...

shorttrini said:

Cerebus said:

I don't mean this to sound rude or flippant, but what does your brother's computer have to do with anything? There is an entire generation, closer to two, who grew up with traditional keyboards. For them, that IS computing. For some of those people even laptop keayboards are uncomfortable (that's why manufacturers continue finding a ways to keep them as large as possible). Those people are going to be buying traditional computing options for at least the next twenty years, probably longer. There may be a shift towards more touch screen computing, but traditional is not going away any time soon. Not until the current generation who grew up with small ass texting keyboards, iphones/smartphones and touchscreens (including tablets) are the only people buying computers. To do otherwise would lose manufacturers money, and you can rest assured that they will never do that.

It has everything to do with it, because he has had a touch screen desktop for the last 2 years.Touch screens and tablet form computers are coming, whether we like it or not. We live in a more mobile world than ever before. Nobody, want to stay tied to their desktop or laptop, especially when, companies are making computers the size and weight of a book. It's called convenience. Convenience, beats out everything else, every time...

they're not only coming, they are here

But I don't think that means the end of actual computers. At least not for work.

shorttrini said:

Cerebus said:

I don't mean this to sound rude or flippant, but what does your brother's computer have to do with anything? There is an entire generation, closer to two, who grew up with traditional keyboards. For them, that IS computing. For some of those people even laptop keayboards are uncomfortable (that's why manufacturers continue finding a ways to keep them as large as possible). Those people are going to be buying traditional computing options for at least the next twenty years, probably longer. There may be a shift towards more touch screen computing, but traditional is not going away any time soon. Not until the current generation who grew up with small ass texting keyboards, iphones/smartphones and touchscreens (including tablets) are the only people buying computers. To do otherwise would lose manufacturers money, and you can rest assured that they will never do that.

It has everything to do with it, because he has had a touch screen desktop for the last 2 years.Touch screens and tablet form computers are coming, whether we like it or not. We live in a more mobile world than ever before. Nobody, want to stay tied to their desktop or laptop, especially when, companies are making computers the size and weight of a book. It's called convenience. Convenience, beats out everything else, every time...

There are a lot of opinions in your last post that simply won't hold water. Mostly, convenient for who? Each user is different. Many people want NOTHING to do with touch screen computing. Many people don't want SMALLER computers, particularly of the laptop variety. Many people simply CAN NOT do what they regularly do on their desktop in the same amount of time on a tablet. Many people don't care about having to sit at their computer for the short time they're on it each day, or even each week. We aren't all tied to our home pcs and/or (addicted to) our portable electronics. Trust me on that. As I said before, they're creaping into the market and may even become a majority of sales, but desktop computing will not be leaving us for decades.

Edit: A touch screen (preferably something like the 20-whatever inch HP) used IN CONJUNCTION with a comfortable keyboard is a different coversation completely. All I'm saying is that touch screen tablets are not going to take over the world in the next few years.

[Edited 1/31/13 16:12pm]

Something like this. Which has a full-size keyboard, a mouse for when it's needed or if you choose to use it, a 23" touch screen, a 2 TB hard drive, 8 GB of ram and a 8.5 GB DVD burner - that is bad ass. Doing all of the computing I could do with that on a 10" tablet would be somewhere between torturous and impossible.

I don't think tablets are going to replace "conventional" computers. Tablets are wonderful for non-power users -- people who don't have the need to code, or use design software; people who basically want something to read e-mail, maybe view/edit documents, PDFs, etc. on the go, people who want to tweet all over the place, blah. Surely, the hardware of a tablet is good enough for advanced, more powerful and robust use, but I don't think we will see a full version of Xcode, Adobe Photoshop or AutoCAD anytime soon, and it mainly has to do with how uncomfortable they would be to use. They're uncomfortable enough sometimes on a huge ass iMac screen.

I still want an iPad, though.

phunkdaddy said:

I don't think laptops are going away any time soon.

I do think tablets will become amazingly powerful over the next few years,

and the ones out today will seem like toys in comparison.

But people want keyboards. Content consumers will love tablets, but

content creators will prefer laptops. Nobody is going to write a book or

a screen play on a tablet, without some kind of keyboard attachment

anyway.

I do think the Mackbook Air form factor will keep getting thinner and

more powerful though. Apple is probably on to something by getting

rid of DVD drives, and I can see thunderbolt becoming the connector

for external storrage as well--so again, thinning down laptops.

But I am always going to want a physical keyboard. I have played

on an iPad before (and one of the android ones, but I don't really

know what the model was--I think it might have been the Nexus 7.

It was smaller and felt cheaper/plasticy). What I realized was

once I got over the fun finger swipes, I found the lack of a keyboard

annoying. Surfing the web, fine. Content creation? Not my thing.