1 Billion PCs by End of 2008

javipas writes "Acording to a study published by Forrester Research, 2008 will be the year in wich a psychological barrier will be surpassed. By the end of next year there will be 1.000.000.000 computers all around the world, a number that will double itself in just five more years. The reason: the emerging markets of countries such as Brazil, China, India or Russia, which will be responsible for 775 million new PCs and laptop computers. Part of them, of course, coming from projects like the OLPC's one."

Comments

In other news

[Yetihehe]

By the end of next year there will be 900.000.000 infected computers.

IPv6

[Anonymous Coward]

Good thing IPv6 is just around the corner, what with two billion PCs in 5 years.

That will be it then

[Silver Sloth]

The reason: the emerging markets of countries such as Brazil, China, India or Russia, which will be responsible of 775 new PCs and laptop computers. Seven hundred and seventy five computers!!!!! Wow, now that's what I call an emerging market

Whaaa????

[$RANDOMLUSER]

which will be responsible of 775 new PCs and laptop computers. Part of them, of course, coming from projects like the OLPC's one."

"Asparagus. Fireplace. Ladder. Mosquito." makes as much sense.

Re:Whaaa????

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Octopus banana. You're too fire hydrant.

Re:Whaaa????

[slashbob22]

Octopus banana. You're too fire hydrant. Dear Sir
I appreciate your joke. I however am concerned with the fact that I now have coffee on my monitor. Please sent $3 and a paper towel to:

Coffee-less Dude
c/o Slashdot

ok, so which joke do we go for here...

[jollyreaper]

Do we go with "billions and billions of" or the pinky held up to the mouth? Sagan or Evil? Maybe Evil Sagan? Yeah, Evil Sagan. I'm imagining passages from Demon-Haunted World read with a Dr. Evil accent. That's the ticket.

Re:775?

[MankyD]

Also, referring to 1,000,000,000 as a "psychological barrier" is kind of a strange term. It doesn't block our thought processes. Calling it a "symbolic mile-stone" might be more appropriate.

My that's one big botnet

[the_humeister]

Perhaps we should start making environmentally friendly computers? I certainly don't want any of those toxins in my ground water.

psychological?

[uofitorn]

"...2008 will be the year in which a psychological barrier will be surpassed."

If Bill Cosby ever decides to do a "Nerds say the dumbest things" show, it won't be hard to find good material here.

A Waste

[Anonymous Coward]

And almost all of those billion PCs will eventually find their way into tips and landfils, or crude pollutive 'recycling' pots in third world countries.

The turnover of computers is so fast not because of natural outdating and failure of hardware but because of the bloating of operating systems and applications software. Windows 95 only needed 4mb of RAM. The increase of RAM and CPU requirements vastly outstrips increases of functionality and mostly resembles Moore's Law.

People keep on buying expensive new computers to do the same things at the same speed. How many gigabytes of RAM will you need to check your email in 2020?

Re:A Waste

[jshriverWVU]

Windows 95 only needed 4mb of RAM

Flashback, wow... actually by todays standards what would qualify as an embedded system.

Re:A Waste

[Dan Ost]

Now that computer technology has roughly plateaued, this replacement cycle will lengthen. We no longer live in a day where you need to upgrade your computer every couple of years just to handle software requirements. Computers are fast enough now that you're only forced to upgrade when your old computer dies.

Re:A Waste

[moranar]

Ahem. I was there, and I remember Windows 95 did jack shit with 4 mb of RAM. Maybe you're thinking of Windows 3.11?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_'95 :
"Official system requirements were an Intel 80386 DX CPU of any speed, 4 MB of system RAM, and 50 MB of hard drive space. These minimal claims were made in order to maximize the available market of Windows 3.1 converts. This configuration was distinctly suboptimal for any productive use on anything but single tasking dedicated workstations due to the heavy reliance on virtual memory. Also, in some cases, if any networking or similar components were installed the system would refuse to boot with 4 Megabytes of RAM. It was possible to run Windows 95 on a 386 SX but this led to even less acceptable performance. To achieve optimal performance, Microsoft recommends an Intel 80486 or compatible microprocessor with at least 8 MB of RAM."

prize

[freeasinrealale]

I think billionth should get a prize. A share in M$... a chair from chairman Ballmer... a big Mac... The mind boggles.

Re:Typo

[trolltalk.com]

Hopefully they'll ship with a spelling and grammar checker:

Acording [spelling] to a study published by Forrester Research, 2008 will be the year in wich [spelling] a psychological barrier will be surpassed. By the end of next year there will be 1.000.000.000 computers all [no computer is big enough to be "all around the world"] around the world [CC], a number that will double itself [superfluous "itself"] in just five more years. The reason: the [punctuation - first word after a full colon should be capitalized] emerging markets of countries such as Brazil, China, India or [should be "and"] Russia, which will be responsible of [should be "for"] 775 [missing a few zeroes] new PCs and laptop computers. Part of them, of course, coming from projects like the OLPC's one. [awkward sentence construct, wrong use of "them", superfluous "one"]"

It reads like spam ... did anyone actually edit this?

vs 2B cellphones today

[blackdefiance]

There are already over 2B active cellphones in the world, and there will be more by the end of 2008... an interesting comparison of market penetration.