Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

TI CEO Says PC Era is Ending

Posted by emmett on from the well-duh dept.

FModnar writes "Texas Instruments CEO Tom Engibous is claiming that the PC era is ending. He claims that wireless Internet devices are replacing PCs as 'the driving force in the electronics industry' and will become even more popular once they are linked to broadband networks. Check out this story at Yahoo! News."

4 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah right. by SurfsUp · · Score: 4

    90% of the world doesn't have a PC now and the PC era is supposed to be ending? Right. I'll believe it when I see all those Indians, Chinese, Indonesians, etc. etc. etc. running Wordperfect on their cellphones.

    --
    Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
  2. Yeah, right. by pb · · Score: 4

    All this means is that the TI CEO thinks wireless internet devices or whatever are the "next big thing".

    Well, everyone is investing in all kinds of crazy stuff hoping it will be the next big thing. Feel free to make a generator for it, using the words "innovative", "wireless", "internet", "hand-held", "touch screen", "Open-Source", "integrated", "internet-ready", "small footprint", "network", "Java", "device", "organizer", etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. We'll all be sick of it soon enough.

    Does that mean this will be the next big thing? They sure hope so. We'll see a lot of attempts, and most of them will fail. These devices have their place, and some of them will live on. Some of them might even replace cell phones and pagers, and let you check on your stuff when you're on the road. That's really handy.

    But the PC will live on. PC's will always have more brute computational force, display your games prettier, give you more room to surf the web and chat with people, play your music, etc., etc. Technological advances from both sides will be folded together. I can't wait to have a PC with a nice big flat screen, and a few really efficient processors.

    But I still wouldn't want to take it on the road, and it's still a PC, just as much as my old Tandy with the monochrome monitor and the full-sized keyboard. Heck, anyone who hasn't been keeping up would just know that PC's are more like TV's now, they're prettier and stuff. Outwardly, they look pretty similar. Screen, keyboard, CPU, etc. I don't think that's gonna change for a while.

    Screw paradigm shifts, I'm staying right here. :)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

    --
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
  3. What if? by Insanik · · Score: 4

    What if all those Indians, Chinese, Indonesians, etc skip the 'PC era?' From what I've read, wireless networks are taking the rest of the world by storm (places other then the US). For instance, I went on a tour in Ireland a while ago. Our tour guide was a telephone-line repairman (For Eircom, I think). It sounds like a shit job by US standards, but is a respectable job in Ireland. Anyway, their telephone networks are not all that great. Many areas on the island use some old radio system for their telephone communications.

    The fact is that almost everybody I met had a cell phone, and nobody had a computer. The internet and email are things that would be of great use to the people. Small and portable web-devices would be much better suited for these people then desktop PCs.

    I am not sure of the situation in the Asian countries, but I am sure smaller devices would suit a majority of the people much better.

    It's not like they HAVE to own a desktop PC before they buy some smaller wireless-web type device.

  4. "But mister Beeblebrox... by XNormal · · Score: 4

    ...it was on the sub-ether radio this morning it said your were dead..."

    "Yeah, that's right. I just haven't stopped moving yet"


    ----

    --
    Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.