[Gunnair]

$1:

The origins of social networking
PCs are going the way of typewriters, vinyl records and vacuum tubes, one of the engineers who worked on the original machine has said.

The claim was made in a blog post commemorating 30 years since the launch of the first IBM personal computer.

No longer, said Dr Mark Dean, are PCs the leading edge of computing.

No single device has taken the PC's place, he said, instead it has been replaced by the socially-mediated innovation it has fostered.

While IBM was not the first to produce a personal computer, the launch of the 5150 on 12 August 1981 established standards and a design around which many desktop machines have since been built.

'Powerful impact'

"When I helped design the PC, I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness its decline," wrote Dr Dean, an IBM engineer who worked on the development of the 5150 and owns three of the nine patents for it.

He revealed that he had already moved into the post-PC era as his primary computer was now a tablet.

Dr Dean does not deny that PCs will still be "much used" in the future but are no longer the force for innovation they once were.

Instead, he said, it was the interaction they enable that was driving efficiencies in the workplace and changes in society.

"It's becoming clear that innovation flourishes best not on devices but in the social spaces between them, where people and ideas meet and interact," he wrote.

He added: "It is there that computing can have the most powerful impact on economy, society and people's lives."

Microsoft also marked the anniversary of the unveiling of the 5150 with a blog considering the changes it had brought about.

Instead of talking about a post-PC era, Microsoft's Frank Shaw said the near future should be regarded as a PC-plus era given that more than 400 million personal computers are set to be sold in 2011.

Personal use of computers had spread beyond a desktop machine to game consoles, mobiles and on screens all around us, said Mr Shaw.

The future will see billions more going online and reaping the benefits of closer contact with computers, he said.

The changes initiated by the PC was "just getting started," he added.

[saturn_656]

The era of the PC will continue for me for quite some time, at least until they can cram the latest graphics accelerator technology into a tablet.

[Freakinoldguy]

saturn_656 saturn_656:

The era of the PC will continue for me for quite some time, at least until they can cram the latest graphics accelerator technology into a tablet.

As you lug your 40LB tablet around so you can game on the move.

News of the future:

2061- A novel concept has been created in the world of computing. During the past 30 years tablets have become so heavy and cumbersome with all the latest technology that IBM has invented a new type of tablet. This table will be stationary so it can be placed in a convienient location in the home. It will be connected to a large screen device or keyboard by a wire called a USB and will have the capacity to hold billions more files than the current tablets with much better graphics.

IBM is saying they're going to name this non portable device a Desktop Computer.

[commanderkai]

We're tablets around...say 2001 or so, when they were called Palm Pilots, and they were nowhere close to as useful as laptops and desktops? Ahh, that's right, the future is going to be people typing 12 page research papers on keys the size of pinheads.

[Tricks]

commanderkai commanderkai:

We're tablets around...say 2001 or so, when they were called Palm Pilots, and they were nowhere close to as useful as laptops and desktops? Ahh, that's right, the future is going to be people typing 12 page research papers on keys the size of pinheads.

I'd love to see a thesis written on a tablet.

[commanderkai]

Tricks Tricks:

I'd love to see a thesis written on a tablet.

Or a Blackberry, or any of these other devices. Seriously, the computer will not die until we can type papers out with our minds.

[ShepherdsDog]

tablets are strictly for entertainment. laptops and desktops will remain work stations for quite awhile.

[herbie]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

tablets are strictly for entertainment. laptops and desktops will remain work stations for quite awhile.

Until you have one.
Then you can tell your techs to take the Netbooks, the iPad's ALL MINE GET AWAY FROM IT!
The full size laptops we flogged off as used, useless for fieldwork.

[Canadian_Mind]

Take a look at Star Trek dudes, all they had for work were Tablets and Desktops. Rarely did they have laptops.

[ShepherdsDog]

have one. I use it mainly the way i used a net book...surfing the web, reading books and watching video. When we go out I let my seven year old use it to play a few games.

[Bacardi4206]

Yeah right , as great as all those things are. There is no way people are going to do all there work on something that's the size of there palm or just a tad bigger. Doing it on a PC is already a pain in the ass as it is.

I never got the whole "watch your movies on your phone" thing. As you can't see the bloody thing or make out anything at all. Point of watching movies is watching them on big screens. The same can be said for PC's. There's just things that are great and useful on these new devices but there are things that just should remain for there originals. Workplace and gaming should remain on PC's or consoles. Movies should remain on TV's. That's never going to change.

[QBC]

I have to agree about the movie thing. I never understood wanting to watch a movie on little screens either. I have a portable DVD player that I took on a couple trips, but found that beside right before going to bed, it wasn't going to get watched anyway. I was too busy with what ever the purpose of the trip was.

I still think people are becoming too "plugged in" to their electronic gadgets. No one actually needs to be in contact 24/7, get a life and turn the damn things off. Facebook and the other social networks that are driving this 24/7 electronic dependency is one of the worst addictions to plague people in history, and we will pay for it someday.

[jeff744]

I doubt PCs will go anywhere, they are the cheapest and first to get anything that makes your picture better, machine faster, etc.