Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The end of the PC as we know it is near

With the development of web-based applications, it seems the home based computer may go the way of the 8-track player.

Adobe will soon release its popular Photoshop image editor as an online application. Google recently launched a series of web based applications including a basic office suite. Red Hat also announced a wholly web based desktop called Sugar.

All these Web 2.0 applications make the concept of a PC pretty useless. If all your applications run online, then you don't need a PC. All you need is a way to connect to the Internet, some input devices, and a display of some sorts. As long as the gadget you use is powerful enough to run a web browser, then you're all set. Even the data can be stored online.

However, for this to become reality, ultra fast (wireless) Internet connections and huge server farms will be required.

The downside, if something goes wrong, then all your data and applications are gone. With a PC, at least you can still run everything from home if the Internet tanks.

This trend is already apparent with cell phones serving up email and IM. Pretty basic stuff, but they are setting the stage for something much bigger.

The home based computer will surely survive this evolution as homes become more and more digital. Its functions, though, will likely be much different than what they are today. It will be used to serve Internet-delivered TV to display monitors, to control room temperature, to turn off the lights when you leave them on. Heck, it might even control your nanobots as they clean and maintain the house.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you are right on here. Even the gaming industry for PCs is going down in favor of specialized gaming consoles! We're going back to the dumb terminal era hehe!