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The Dawn of the Post-PC era?
An anonymous reader writes "The "Post-PC" era may be near at hand, according to the findings of a recently completed market study conducted by eTForecasts. The study projects that Windows CE-based devices may outsell Windows-based PCs within 5 years. According to the report, Microsoft has made "tremendous progress" in positioning its Windows CE and derivative operating systems for use in a broad range of handheld and mobile devices such as PDAs and Smartphones, and only embedded Linux is poised to represent a major long-term across-the-board competitor to Microsoft." The Register has another story about the study.
5 years is optimistic, but I would love to see it happen, the biggest hurdle for PDAs and portable computers is the battery life, power to the machines!
Posting useless rant since 2003.
While I personally have had very few blue screens using w2k for a couple years, I know that some versions of windows are blue screen prone. I'm curious what the average blue screen rate is for a hand held device. Anyone have an idea on this?
I think it would annoy me more if my hand held crashed than if my desktop did.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
I was not touched there by an angel.
Will be around for a while longer... What I see in the future is the letting go of legacy and the refinement of the beige box into a hub of sorts. The embedded segment still has poor input devices and no matter how small and useful they could be until headway is made in the usability arena specifically regarding input then they are pretty tough and difficult to use for any long period of time.
The first manufacturer to start pumping out non-legacy machines that are smaller more aesthetic and can hold current media yet allow for new functionality that is found in stuff like MythTv, Freevo, Tivo, Windows Media OS etc etc etc with ease will be the next big computer manufacturer.. That is till the guys/gals over at the mit media lab find out a way to get better input devices for smaller devices. Whether it be voice operated or whatever etc etc etc.. you get the idea.
Look into the company...it seems to be a one-man shop. If I remember the area its in correctly that's a residential address, I will drive by today to verify. This release is from a conshop.
I still have a copy of that Corel Office for Java beta that they came out with. I remember how badly it ran back when it came out, but about a year ago I brought it up on modern equipment. It really wasn't that bad. It was clearly seven years too early to go anywhere.
For me, the "post PC era" is when people stop treating thier computers as computers, and start viewing them as appliances. SFF PCs are a gateway into it where the PC becomes a set top box much like a DVD player or VCR. The xBox has the potential to be a major gap bridger, as the people that have modded it have found out. A subset of this would be a decline in "PC" sales as people start using the various "appliances" for tasks that they would have otherwise used a PC for.
Another definition would be an end to the trend of continued growth in the PC market and a return to predominantly just using appliances.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
The main problem is the proprietary CLOSED nature of console games. The BEST longest lasting most played games, read made the MOST $$$'s are PLAYER supported, designed for MODS and player maps. Until the consoles figure a way around that, and I am sure they will, PC gaming is and will continue to be superior. The grand expirement is EQ adventures, and I predict a slow painful death for that game. Without a keyboard and extensive macro ability it is going to be painful at best. Make a console controller that can compete with a mouse+keyboard in a FPS and you might have something also. :)
As to needing new games with more imagnitive gameplay HERE HERE
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
This story conflicts with this story by the same research company:
http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0402.htm
In 2001 the worldwide number of PCs-in-use topped 600M units. In the next six years this number will nearly double to over 1.15B PCs-in-use by year-end 2007-a compound annual growth of 11.4%.
Trouble with market research firms is that they usually tend to tell the client what they want to hear.
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Okay, look. You and many of the other posters are missing the point. This isn't about the personal computer at all; this is about the fact that your BMW 7 series, the rollercoasters at Disneyland, and your microwave will all be running an operating system. And, according to the figures calculated by this company, Microsoft's operating system will be the one of choice.
I don't agree with this company's assessment one bit. Microsoft is NOT skilled at embedded systems, and the problems with the new BMW 7 series are *proof* that Microsoft has a long way to go before they truly understand the severity of the problems which can result from crappy code. (This is why I will definitely stay away from the new 5 series.
Look for interesting things to come out of Motorola once they complete their cultural overhaul, and from the manufacturers themselves - self-organizing and creating generic platforms specific to their industry (Daimler+BMW+VW; Sony+Panasonic+JVC; etc). I'm no open source zealot here, but the real winner here appears to be Linux.
In the PC world, Linux is the fringe option for the crazy people. In the post-PC world, Windows is the fringe option for the crazy people. Ahh -- sweet, sweet redemption, eh?