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November 04, 2007
PC decline?
PC decline? I'm not sure this Associated Press article gets it right, with its headline "PCs being pushed aside in Japan". The main evidence seems to be that sales of new PCs have declined, quarter-to-quarter, over five quarters. That's not surprising in a population of static size, where hardware quality is a key purchasing criterion. The article does not cite a decline in homes with PCs, and only suggests a (quite plausible) decline in hours spent with PCs. Techmeme already features glosses such as "a world without PCs" and "PCs pushed aside" -- particularly strange when you consider how strongly desktop-centric this crowd is, and how they only got onto mobile when Apple blessed it. Most of the world already bypasses workstations and goes directly to the pocket -- in China, and India, and indeed all over the world, it's far more reasonable for your first digital communications device to be a low-price mobile. But workstations have unique advantages beyond that, and home media systems have further advantages beyond that. (I'm typing this on a pocket computer -- the fullsize keyboard helps over mobile hunt&peck, but a fullsize monitor would help too, and if I was editing richer media I'd want hardware accelleration.) Needs scale. My takeaway: There's a nice "link to my blog" incentive for stories like "iPhone vs Mac!", but I think the real issue is in delivering experiences -- whether documents, presentations, or applications -- to whatever browser, operating system, or device form factor your audience may choose.
Posted by JohnDowdell at November 4, 2007 01:59 PM
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