PC Designer Says PC "Going the Way of the Vacuum Tube"

jbrodkin writes "One of the original engineers of IBM's first PC says PCs are 'going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.' With the 30th anniversary of the IBM 5150 (running MS-DOS) coming this week, IBM CTO Mark Dean argues that the post-PC world is very much upon us, perhaps not surprising given that IBM sold its PC business in 2005. Microsoft, of course, weighed in as well, saying the PC era is nowhere near over. But perhaps in the future we will consider a personal computer anything a person does computing on — whether that be laptop, tablet, smartphone, or something that hasn't even been invented yet."

Comments

Dumbest Prediction Ever?

[shellster_dude]

The "post PC" age is not upon us. Small computers and cellphones largely do what PC's used to, but they don't even come close to being capable of handling high-end gaming, graphic editing, movie editing, sound editing, and heavy mathematical computation. Small computers also aren't particularly convenient for software development in general. Unless the landscape radically shifts those items aren't going away anytime soon.

Someone is just trying to get a little press buzz and desparately hoping the world takes notice of them.

Re:supposedly obsolete tech

[Phreakiture]

Your microwave oven will have a cavity magnetron in it, which is a vacuum tube.

Also, if you have an older TV, CRTs are vacuum tubes.