I've given this a great deal of thought the last couple of days and I think we have just witnessed the death toll of the personal computer as we know it now as a major consumer product. I think that computers in the work place will never be replaced by a device such as this, but the days of people buying mom and dad a computer so they can read emails and see pictures of the grandchildren that live on the other coast are numbered.
Over the past couple of decades the computer industry has tried to push what is essentially a business computer into the consumer space. They come in a big desktop size bun, tiny little netbook size bun, all-in-one meal size bun and portable desktop replacement size bun. Like a good burger joint they make them any way you want them, plain as can be, or loaded with everything, just as long as it's a business shaped burger inside. Which was fine 10+ years ago when that was all there was to choose from, but it isn't today when people want a grilled chicken salad or a fish dinner.
It used to be home computers where for the younger more technical savy crowd, while their parents, who were part of the TV generation, avoided them as unnecessary to have in the home and were actually afraid of using them. Well that generation of computer adopters grew up and had kids of their own. A generation who grew up with desktop computers and think of them as a natural part of life. Their children grew up with laptop computers as a natural part of life.
The problem is that the computer industry and those computer generations try to find any and every reason to make use of computers. Some weren't satisfied with computers at home, so they made computers that could be taken with us. Some weren't happy with the bulk of those laptops so they invented the Netbook. Some didn't like a big computer case sitting under the desk so they invented all-in-ones. All shapes and sizes to choose from, but still always at it's core was a business shaped burger.
Heck the last couple of years even having one computer in the house wasn't enough. They wanted us to have an HTPC in the living room and a Home Server to collect all the media and serve it when needed. Always though it was taking a business shaped burger and trying to shove it into another consumer size bun.
Apple very smartly is trying to break the cycle of computers as we know them today. Tech types will come up with a million reasons why it is not as good as a real computer. No real Windows or OS X with desktop applications, no expandable memory or storage, doesn't output 1080p over HDMI, not a big enough processor, the list goes on and on. Basically its not a burger and what they want is a burger in another size package.
But that is about to change......
Maybe not by this Apple device, but by some product that takes this tablet device and refines it and improves on it and polishes it to perfection. But the flood gates are open now and there's no stopping the eventual course that this river will run.
The problem is that the generation growing up right now is the handheld generation. They've always played games on handheld systems like the DS, listened to music and watched video on iPods and had Smartphone's before they were teens. This generation is not going to except being told that it takes a big clunky desktop computer or a laptop computer to enjoy the internet, play games, watch video or listen to music. They already know that it doesn't and you could never convince them it does.
So maybe not this year or even next, but once other companies start turning out their own versions of the iPad, and by that I mean devices that aren't based on the business burger in yet another bun, then the days of the older couple going into Wal-Mart and picking up a $489 HP computer so they can keep in touch with those kids and grandchildren on the other coast are over. A few years from now those grandchildren will be carrying these handheld type devices and showing them how easy it is to do things on them and on that day the era of the home computer desktop as a mass consumer device is over. The grilled chicken salad era will start and the burger will go back to being a business item.
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