Are we seeing a pendulum swing or are we seeing the end of PC?

[Ar-Pharazon]

Re: Are we seeing a pandulum swing or are we seeing the end of PC?

Can you really do all the things you need to do with just a smartphone and an iPad? I doubt it. And then again, HP does not only plan to abandon the PC market, they also threw smartphones and touchpads over the railing, didn't they? I think this is just HP being in trouble, but nothing indicative about the market as a whole.

What does this leave for HP, dodgy printers with even dodgier drivers?

If so, they really are in trouble, I don't plan on buying another HP printer.

I have 2 HP optical drives in my desktop. Do they plan to continue making parts?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I have absolutely no idea what “the end of PC” is supposed to even mean, but:

Apple killed the PC just like Coca Cola killed the soft drinks. The tablet killed the PC just like the burger killed the dish. The smartphone killed the PC just like the jelly babies killed the dessert. The Cloud killed the PC just like porn killed sex.

 

[BK613]

I'm not giving this up.

This. (hehe)

 

[Mooch]

Re: Are we seeing a pandulum swing or are we seeing the end of PC?

The PC isn't going anywhere. It's still a requirement in the business world--thin clients don't cut it for any serious work.

On the contrary, I would say a thin client cuts it just fine for the vast majority of "serious work". More and more business-class applications are just gui's to manipulate data stored on a server somewhere. Thin clients are the next logical step.

However, I think "the end of the PC" is more of a consumer scenario-and even then laptops and netbooks will continue to play a role. I can see full-fledged desktops becoming less and less popular (as they have been for some time).

 

[Sean Aaron]

Re: Are we seeing a pandulum swing or are we seeing the end of PC?

Biggest problem with cloud services is security.. can you trust a company enough to put all your files, even the sensitive stuff (you know.. homemade porn ) on their servers and be safe?

It's a fair point, though I'm just thinking email, contacts and photos, so I'm not bothered. Not like I'd be storing my passwords or bank details there.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Email, contacts and photos is pretty much enough. Passwords can be changed, and bank details... bank security is broken at the banks, so blame them if anything bad happens. On top of that, you're already sharing sensitive bank information with random sites if you want to make purchases. For me emails, contacts and photos are more sensitive, and imagine what it is if you're a corporate user.

But yeah, a lot of people use “cloud” services to store their passwords. That's... weird.

 

[BlobVanDam]

The PC is not going anywhere. These toy tablets are just a current trend, and they're useless for any kind of real work. They're a compromise for when you're away from a real computer, and that's all they'll ever be. Sure some people will be able to use them exclusively, but these are not the people that work with computers.

And now to get back to work on my PC doing some real work.

 

[Sean Aaron]

On top of that, you're already sharing sensitive bank information with random sites if you want to make purchases.

Well, I can only login to my bank site using a little hard token thing that I put my chip-and-pin card into. I make it a point not to use my Visa debit for anything but in-person purchases and credit card purchases are always covered for internet fraud so I'm golden. I use Paypal whenever I can. Now Paypal does have my bank details, but they seem pretty trustworthy.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Paypal and trustworthy are not two words that I would put in the same sentence, unless frozen accounts and assets aren't covered by the word “trust”.

 

[Sean Aaron]

No problems with Paypal yet (touch wood)!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

There are a lot of horror stories about PayPal (and I mean a lot!) but I have also never had issues with them.

I could do with them being regulated, though. They have more or less cornered the market for what they do and I don't think that's good for anyone.

 

[Sean Aaron]

I could do with them being regulated, though. They have more or less cornered the market for what they do and I don't think that's good for anyone.

I absolutely agree with that. I'd like to see some serious competitors emerge. In fact I don't understand why banks haven't gathered to create some kind of new internet purchasing infrastructure which links up with people's bank accounts and have instead simply fallen back on credit cards.

The card-reading device I mentioned seems like it could be used to authorise purchases as well so if my building society offered a Paypal-like service that was widely adopted I'd drop Paypal in a heartbeat.

 

[FPAlpha]

The PC is not going anywhere. These toy tablets are just a current trend, and they're useless for any kind of real work. They're a compromise for when you're away from a real computer, and that's all they'll ever be. Sure some people will be able to use them exclusively, but these are not the people that work with computers.

And now to get back to work on my PC doing some real work.

I'd not dismiss tablets so easily.. a lot of people said the same about laptop computers when they first spread onto the market and today many people will choose a laptop over a desktop computer any day (including me).

Tablets are just too new and haven't matured yet.. give them 5-10 years and i can guarantee they will have their share of the market. They'll be powerful enough for most needs and their physical limitations, i.e. space to put in devices that will be needed for power usage cna be offset via cloud computing, i.e. using server side full programs and storage (as much as i don't like cloud computing it could lift up tablet PCs to become a viable alternative).

 

[BlobVanDam]

The PC is not going anywhere. These toy tablets are just a current trend, and they're useless for any kind of real work. They're a compromise for when you're away from a real computer, and that's all they'll ever be. Sure some people will be able to use them exclusively, but these are not the people that work with computers.

And now to get back to work on my PC doing some real work.

I'd not dismiss tablets so easily.. a lot of people said the same about laptop computers when they first spread onto the market and today many people will choose a laptop over a desktop computer any day (including me).

Tablets are just too new and haven't matured yet.. give them 5-10 years and i can guarantee they will have their share of the market. They'll be powerful enough for most needs and their physical limitations, i.e. space to put in devices that will be needed for power usage cna be offset via cloud computing, i.e. using server side full programs and storage (as much as i don't like cloud computing it could lift up tablet PCs to become a viable alternative).

The reason is because laptops aren't such a huge compromise anymore like they were over a decade ago. They run the same OS, they have almost the same specs, they support all of the same peripherals and input methods, and they don't cost much more than a desktop now. The reason it's a good alternative is because it's just a sized down PC.
Right now tablets aren't even in the ballpark. Some of that will obviously change over time, but a tablet by it's very design cannot do things as well as a real computer because of its dumbed down interface methods, compounded by the much more restrictive operating systems and hardware many of them currently have. Touching a screen is intuitive, but it cannot do many things that the humble old keyboard/mouse combo can do so easily and well.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I think the downside of tablets has more to do with their input methods than anything else. An on-screen keyboard just isn't very quick for extended bouts of typing, and I find a trackball a lot less work to use for pointing. I suppose you could dock the tablet to something with a bunch of ports, including a keyboard and mouse, but then it's not just a tablet anymore, is it?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

No problems with Paypal yet (touch wood)!

Stop touchin' yer wood! It's a family forum

I haven't had any issues with PP either, though stupid ebay "linked" some other person's account with mine then claimed they couldn't do anything to unlink it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

No problems with Paypal yet (touch wood)!

Stop touchin' yer wood! It's a family forum

I haven't had any issues with PP either, though stupid ebay "linked" some other person's account with mine then claimed they couldn't do anything to unlink it.

Real banks do this, too. Although they are usually capable of undoing it once they're aware of the problem.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Re: Are we seeing a pandulum swing or are we seeing the end of PC?

Sony has proven that this is not possible because any dedicated hacker with some skill (or a group of them) will be able to penetrate the security and copy your stuff and maybe put it on the net for all to see.

One thing that was made extremely clear to me in IT security classes in college was this: 90% of the big "hacking" incidents are inside jobs. The 10% that aren't, are enabled through the (often wilful) neglect of the company's security consultants, building in loopholes that someone else can exploit later.

So if, say, Sun Microsystems is running a cloud server, you mainly have to worry about what happens if The Bobs pay them a visit and downsize half of their senior programmers. They wouldn't necessarily do it to threaten YOU, it would mainly be a way of getting back at the assholes that fired them in the first place and undermining their business model. Of course the only way to make that revenge stick is to get their customers to lynch them wholesale, so they would do something like corrupt all of your files or sell your personal information to identity thieves. If you're gonna crack your boss' safe, you might as well stick a dog turd in there for good measure.

I can see the advantages for many people to have instant access to their files

I don't, considering that any computer or device powerful enough to establish a gigabit internet connection via WiFi probably has an internal hard drive too. The only advantage of the cloud is really the ability to access all of your files from OTHER computers that aren't yours... and yet a 2gig flashdrive costs about ten dollars and can hold anything you could conceivably need on the road. And if you're not the kind of person who takes the simple step of backing up your files on a flash drive, you're probably not going to enjoy the cloud that much either.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

There are a lot of horror stories about PayPal (and I mean a lot!) but I have also never had issues with them.

I could do with them being regulated, though. They have more or less cornered the market for what they do and I don't think that's good for anyone.

PayPal hasn't cornered the market anymore than Apple has the corner on high-end computers. They're simply the most well known and widely used of those services, which also explains the high volume of complaints. There are DOZENS of other services that provide credit card services and dozens that provide pre-paid/online payment, e-checking, etc. None of them offer ALL of the functions that PayPal does, which is why PayPal is so popular: when you can get ten different products from a single company, you'll probably go to them before you shop around to ten different companies each for a single product.

I think the downside of tablets has more to do with their input methods than anything else. An on-screen keyboard just isn't very quick for extended bouts of typing, and I find a trackball a lot less work to use for pointing. I suppose you could dock the tablet to something with a bunch of ports, including a keyboard and mouse, but then it's not just a tablet anymore, is it?

Sure it is. IF the tablet is running (almost) the same O.S. as a regular computer, you can simply use the keyboard as an optional device and only whip it out when you need to type something. Otherwise you can just prop the tablet up on a table somewhere to watch youtube and movies or plug in a wireless controller for gaming.

That is IF AND WHEN tablets become essentially slimmed-down laptops with the entire computer condensed into the monitor so that the keyboard and drives are all peripheral devices you can attach or leave behind--WIRELESSLY--whenever you want.

Either way, I won't be buying a tablet until it can do everything a laptop can do, only better and faster.

 

[ngc7293]

I'd rather build a PC again and get exactly what I want instead of what THEY think I want. The last computer I did that with has lasted over 10 years and has done just fine. I have had an iBook before and wouldn't mind getting one again rather than a Windows Laptop.

I don't agree that PCs are dead. Touch pad computers are just oversized PDAs and can't do much. They are not real computers. Until they prove themselves with real operating systems and use real keyboards, they are just toys.

So how is iOS/Android/WinMobile not real operating systems?

You can use a Bluetooth keyboard with an iPad such as Apple's on which also works with the Macs. ASUS have a pad with a keyboard docking station.

The processor power of an touchpad would do quite well for a
lot of people (graphics would need some more oomph to drive a larger screen) because they don't have to deal with the bloat of Windows for example.

The touchpad does not have the ability to open several documents at once. It cannot multitask. On a laptop, I can run Dreamweaver, Word (or Open Office), Photoshop, and or The Gimp all at once. This is not possible on a touchpad.

As one person has already said, the Touch pad is not there yet, but even if it was, I would rather have a keyboard available to me rather than a touch screen. Times may change. I've gone from manual typewriters to this PC that I put together myself. I also keep a PDA for all my important information. If I had the money, I would probably have switched over to a smart phone as it would have had the same functions as the Palm E2.