Most people that bought a computer before the advent of smartphones or touchpads did not use the computer to do actual computing tasks. They only bought it to surf or use it for word processing. It is not that a computer will be obsolete, it is just that the market has evolved.
It is kind of like what will happen to the automotive industry when all cars are self driving: most families will have one car instead of two and because all trucks and taxis will be driving 24/7 there will be less sales.
This is exactly it. Traditional PC's are massive overkill for most of the world. All Joey Bagadonuts wants to do is look at his facebook and maybe find some tail on Tinder, not recompile their kernel while rendering meshes.
I agree, now that the technology has advanced enough for phones/tablets to be powerful and comfortable enough for most people's use cases, PCs are increasingly being used only for (relatively) niche purposes.
It's important to note, though, that the entire mobile category of devices couldn't exist without PCs, since that's where the mobile apps are developed, websites are built, and the whole infrastructure is maintained. PCs aren't dying, their install base and market share is being dwarfed by the massive number of regular people for whom mobile devices provide a better solution for computing tasks.
I think both Microsoft and Apple is sobering up to this fact with fewer wanting to pay for unnecessary OS updates that only applies to high-end systems or likewise high-end users having to pay for unnecessary updates that only applies to low-end users.
Most people that bought a computer before the advent of smartphones or touchpads did not use the computer to do actual computing tasks. They only bought it to surf or use it for word processing. It is not that a computer will be obsolete, it is just that the market has evolved.
It is kind of like what will happen to the automotive industry when all cars are self driving: most families will have one car instead of two and because all trucks and taxis will be driving 24/7 there will be less sales.
This is exactly it. Traditional PC's are massive overkill for most of the world. All Joey Bagadonuts wants to do is look at his facebook and maybe find some tail on Tinder, not recompile their kernel while rendering meshes.
I agree, now that the technology has advanced enough for phones/tablets to be powerful and comfortable enough for most people's use cases, PCs are increasingly being used only for (relatively) niche purposes.
It's important to note, though, that the entire mobile category of devices couldn't exist without PCs, since that's where the mobile apps are developed, websites are built, and the whole infrastructure is maintained. PCs aren't dying, their install base and market share is being dwarfed by the massive number of regular people for whom mobile devices provide a better solution for computing tasks.
I think both Microsoft and Apple is sobering up to this fact with fewer wanting to pay for unnecessary OS updates that only applies to high-end systems or likewise high-end users having to pay for unnecessary updates that only applies to low-end users.