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The End of the PC Era and Apple's Plan To Survive
Hugh Pickens writes "Charlie Stross has written a very interesting essay, ostensibly about the 'real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash,' but really about how Jobs is betting Apple's future on an all-or-nothing push into a new market as Moore's law tapers off and the personal computer industry craters and turns into a profitability wasteland. Stross says that Apple is trying desperately to force the growth of a new ecosystem — one that rivals the 26-year-old Macintosh environment — to maturity in five years flat — the time scale in which they expect the cloud computing revolution to flatten the existing PC industry and turn PC manufacturers into suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligible profit. 'Any threat to the growth of the app store software platform is going to be resisted, vigorously, at this stage,' writes Stross. 'And he really does not want cross-platform apps that might divert attention and energy away from his application ecosystem.' The long-term goal is to support the long-term migration of Apple from being a hardware company with a software arm into being a cloud computing company with a hardware subsidiary. 'This is why there's a stench of panic hanging over Silicon Valley. This is why Apple have turned into paranoid security Nazis, why HP have just ditched Microsoft from a forthcoming major platform and splurged a billion-plus on buying up a near-failure; it's why everyone is terrified of Google,' writes Stross. 'The PC revolution is almost coming to an end, and everyone's trying to work out a strategy for surviving the aftermath.'"
Ah, the smell of hyperbole in the morning....
Offer a phone with a USB port.
I hope this helps the bankruptcy of Apple.
Cheers.
PC revolution is almost coming to an end, and everyone's trying to work out a strategy for surviving the aftermath
a sawed off shotgun, lots of ammo, and a Ford Falcon XB Interceptor
If you think Clarus is a misspelling of Claris, you REALLY, REALLY need to get the FUCK off my platform. RIGHT. NOW.
Don't be ridiculous. Tower PCs are going to die, and we're all going to be using mobile devices in the future. When you go to work in an office, you won't be using a Dell in a tower case with a 24" monitor any more; you'll be answering your email, working on spreadsheets and documents, and doing CAD design or programming on a netbook with a 7" screen, or even a smartphone with an on-screen keyboard, or perhaps one of those virtual keyboards that are projected onto a desk. I predict full-size keyboards and monitors are going to be obsolete within 5 years.
Offices in the near future will be completely revolutionized by this mobile technology. Gone will be walled offices and cubicles, and instead people will come to work at offices which are just very large rooms which look much like cafeteria seating areas, where everyone can sit together at long tables, and do all their work on their smartphones, while being able to easily collaborate with each other, and anyone in the entire office. It's going to be amazing how much more productive everyone is in such an environment.