If you mention that instruction on Twitter , you ’ll like a shot be confront by duo of your followers over the fact that the iPad 2 itself is dependent on a PC for activation and synchronize content . Which is to say , most commentator have completely lack the spot … and likely go wrong Latin in High School as well .
The iPad and other twist are not here to displace the PC ( by which I mean all personal computers , whether they ’re Macs or PCs run Windows ) . In fact , carry PCmeansafter PC , a new coevals of product that build on the PC . What it does n’t intend issans PC , that is , without PC . The personal computer will no doubt be with us for a very prospicient metre … but that does n’t mean we ’re not in the post - PC world .
I often like to recall Mark Twain ’s classical comeback to a reporter who pink on Twain ’s door while investigate reports that Twain was deathly ill . “ The report of my death was an exaggeration , ” he tell the surprised reporter . That line has become a part of our lexicon for describing both magnification and unsound reporting . ( Thirteen years later , Twain ’s destruction was no longer an magnification , just an inevitable fact . )
Even as some today hype the dying of the PC , allow ’s be clear : the PC is n’t going anywhere anytime shortly . Of course , the personal computer as we bonk it will continue to evolve — and a next contemporaries of those devices will bear as little resemblance to today ’s Macs as today ’s Macs resemble Altair PCs of days move by .
The current - day personal computing machine remains the ultimate Swiss regular army knife of info . If you want the net without any compromises , you need a PC . require to get at corporate apps and legacy information ? That ’s also a microcomputer . need to act as the adept and most sophisticated plot ? See PC as well .
Unless you are willing to live with a subset of functionality , you ’re move to desire and need a PC , even as that received change over time .
So , why so much hype about the post - PC world ? Because historically , as PCs have become progressively sophisticated , they ’ve also become progressively complex . user become gift by Modern features while at the same time being forced to vie with complex system that can fog the task currently at hand .
This is one intellect why devices like the iPad have become popular . No , they ca n’t do everything a PC can do today — but that ’s not a bad thing . The iPad do some job quite well , all while keeping those tasks bare — and that means an iPad can replace that 2d or third PC someone was thinking of buying .
As we transition into a post - PC world , the ability of gadget to balance new technology and feature against complexity for a given set of functions will serve drive purchase . The keystone will be for user to see out just what machine in force fit the appropriate science set or need . call for to decode the human genome ? There ’s no app for that just yet . On the other paw , many tasks once suited only for the PC are now very realizable on other post - PC equipment .
[ Michael Gartenberg is an analyst and long - fourth dimension Mac user who covers the existence of the interlink consumer forGartner . The opinions express are his own . ]
