PC, History?

The Monkees were a successfully compiled musical group that played on our TV for a couple of years and sold millions of records ( vinyl ) and for about 2 seconds were supposed to be the second coming of the Beatles. Mike Nesmith the quiet one of the group ala George Harrison, was talented but didn't need the money because his mother had invented Tippex ( whiteout ) for typewriter corrections. It was a gooey white material secretaries used to cover up spelling mistakes made on their typewriters which were closer to stone tablets when compared to today's technology.

I give you these fascinating facts as a segue leading to comments made by Mark Dean from IBM indicating the PC will soon be obsolete. Mark Dean is a long term IBM employee who holds three of the nine patents on the original PC, so he has the history and the credibility to hold forth on such comments.

Just as Steve Jobs made comments about being in a post PC world and how much tablets will take from the PCs, Dean's thoughts push that thinking even further. Most analysts would consider the market close to saturation and PC makers are having a hard time convincing consumers to buy other than on price. So where are we heading?

According to Dean it's mobile all the way and the smart phone will be the choice for everything we do on the PC now and more. The speed of acceptance, growth and usability of the smart phone has been higher than the PC and people will live their lives through these hand held devices. Everything from credit cards, drives licences, pictures, music, medical records and more will be held on these phones and all transactions you do on a daily basis will flow through them. Sure there will still be some PCs just as there are still typewriters in museums and curio shops.

One of the big advantages phones have over the PC is the ubiquitous nature of the device in that anyone can now afford one, even in developing countries like India and China, where even the new tablet war hasn't made a dent. The iPad and it's many competitors are seen as go betweens or transitions of the PC to the phone but you can't carry them around as easy as a technological wallet housing all your documents, transacting as you go with whatever the electronic currency of the future will be. Dean is convinced we won't be carrying around wallets in 5 to 7 years time. The phone is already the focal point of social media with everyone under 30, barely looking at a PC, unless it is in the workplace, so Dean's predictions don't need much more of a push to see the end of the PC.

If you take this to the Nth degree it will affect men's fashions as back pockets for wallets will no longer be required as the smart phone will house everything you now carry around in that wallet including the few dollars for drinks with your mates. May have to look at some more glute exercises now that I can't hide behind that wallet in my back pocket.