Post PC Era or no?

[Chrisg2014]

Is the Laptop and Desktop market selling less and less or is the Tablet market just growing? I mean everyone who probable has a tablet already has a computer, tablets really are only for light reading and checking emails and some gaming.

Also I have yet to find someone who types papers or documents always or most of the time on there iPad or Tablet pc.


Edit:

oh and I forgot social media. also Post PC Era*

 

[MacJones]

For anyone that's a casual PC user the iPad is a much better experience than a desktop or laptop. For content creators we still need a full computer.

 

[tmarks11]

also Post PC Era*

nope, bet you typed this on an iPad, and it decided that you wanted to talk about "area" instead of "era". My iPad does that to me all the time, random periods and sometimes wholesale changes; misspell one word, and it decides to replace that one word with two completely different words with a period in between. Sometimes quite humorous.

Some gentleman next to me on a cross county flight was using his iPad to type a short document. It took hours of what would have been minutes on a decent laptop. MBA would have been a better choice for him, and not that much more painful to carry. I wish apple had offered MBA 3G/4G capability, I might have ditched my iPad this go around. Just don't want to carry an extra gizmo along (mifi) when I travel.

 

[BFizzzle]

nope, bet you typed this on an iPad, and it decided that you wanted to talk about "area" instead of "era". My iPad does that to me all the time, random periods and sometimes wholesale changes; misspell one word, and it decides to replace that one word with two completely different words with a period in between. Sometimes quite humorous.

Some gentleman next to me on a cross county flight was using his iPad to type a short document. It took hours of what would have been minutes on a decent laptop. MBA would have been a better choice for him, and not that much more painful to carry. I wish apple had offered MBA 3G/4G capability, I might have ditched my iPad this go around. Just don't want to carry an extra gizmo along (mifi) when I travel.

really? thats odd.. i find typing on my ipad just the same as typing on my computer. the keys are laid out the same.. even so you can use a keyboard/ case with keyboard. Maybe he just need to sharpen up his typing skills.

you dont have to carry and ipad and mifi if you have a internet capable device


as others stated, unless you need to use your computer for creation, Webdesign, Music production, Programming, Animating,etc. The ipad can do all basic functions just fine. If not better in some opinions.

Can anyone tell me anything it cant do for a basic user (which is most people) Email,Web, Word Processing, Skype, Music, Basic Photo Edit, etc.

ive been considering getting my mom one instead of a new laptop.

 

[barjam]

really? thats odd.. i find typing on my ipad just the same as typing on my computer. the keys are laid out the same.. even so you can use a keyboard/ case with keyboard. Maybe he just need to sharpen up his typing skills.

you dont have to carry and ipad and mifi if you have a internet capable device


as others stated, unless you need to use your computer for creation, Webdesign, Music production, Programming, Animating,etc. The ipad can do all basic functions just fine. If not better in some opinions.

Can anyone tell me anything it cant do for a basic user (which is most people) Email,Web, Word Processing, Skype, Music, Basic Photo Edit, etc.

ive been considering getting my mom one instead of a new laptop.

I type extremely fast on the iPad/iPhone keyboard but there is no comparison compared to a real keyboard. Can you do 80+ wpm on a onscreen keyboard? And if use a keyboard (external or cover) you basically have a gimped MacBook air.

I love my iPad and use it (not counting work) more than my laptop or pc but it sucks for real work.

 

[mcdj]

Post PC error.

 

[jojoba]

And if use a keyboard (external or cover) you basically have a gimped MacBook air.

I prefer my iPad (with external keyboard when necessary) to my macbook air as my main portable device due to the combination of 3G access/ stylus input and long battery life, so in that sense I find it superior to my MBA when I'm on the go. The MBA comes along if I'm away for more than two days. If you really want to, you can push the iPad relatively far also in content creation, but personally I prefer to do my writing production in Scrivener on my MBA. I'd never get rid of my MBA and go iPad only.

 

[Piggie]

Actually, and perhaps surprisingly Steve Balmer had a good answer to this type of question.

Post PC (Personal Computer) era, well, no of course not.

Are we in a time when PC's will be changing into all sorts of different form factors? Yes, of course, as they always have done.


Specifically, Ballmer said:

“I think people are going to be using PCs in a greater and greater numbers for many years to come. I think PCs are going to continue to shift in form factor. PCs will look different next year, the year after, the year after that… I think the PC as we know it will continue to morph form factor… Windows machines are not going to be ‘trucks.’ They will continue to be the mass popularizer of a variety of things that people want to do with information… I think there’s a fundamental difference between small-enough-to-be-in-your-pocket and not-small-enough-to-be-in-your-pocket. There will be some distinct differences in usage patterns between those two devices.”

Steve Jobs only came out with that type of statement as a salesman/marketing person would to push Apple's tablet devices.

Or course we are not and may well never, for decades be in a post "Personal Computer" era.

As Steve Balmer said, will Personal Computer change to suit the needs and uses of the future of course they will.

 

[Carouser]

Yes, if you define PC as "any computing device, whatever the form or interface" then PCs will be around for years to come.

What relevance this has to "Post PC Era" where 'PC' is clearly used (whether for marketing or not, it's irrelevant) to mean the current desktop form and interface as the paradigm of computer usage, I have no idea.

 

[Piggie]

Yes, if you define PC as "any computing device, whatever the form or interface" then PCs will be around for years to come.

What relevance this has to "Post PC Era" where 'PC' is clearly used (whether for marketing or not, it's irrelevant) to mean the current desktop form and interface as the paradigm of computer usage, I have no idea.

Well, would Windows 8, on a RT Surface tablet, which will only run Metro Apps, be classed as a "Post PC" device, just because it does not have a full scale desktop OS/UI behind it that you can access?

 

[mlmwalt]

For anyone that's a casual PC user the iPad is a much better experience than a desktop or laptop. For content creators we still need a full computer.

I agree 100%. Rudimentary work in the iWork suite is fine on the iPad, but for more robust uses of the application a laptop or desktop is necessary.

My MBP is basically a media server and handles my heavy duty computing needs. I only use it a few times per month.

 

[Carouser]

Well, would Windows 8, on a RT Surface tablet, which will only run Metro Apps, be classed as a "Post PC" device, just because it does not have a full scale desktop OS/UI behind it that you can access?

I have no idea what the relevance of this is re: your failed point; I cannot imagine how either an answer of 'yes' or 'no' would make any difference to the OP's questions or the thrust of the discussion of the thread.

 

[Night Spring]

Well, would Windows 8, on a RT Surface tablet, which will only run Metro Apps, be classed as a "Post PC" device, just because it does not have a full scale desktop OS/UI behind it that you can access?

I would say even the Surface Pro, which runs full desktop OS, is a Post-PC device because of its extremely portable form factor. To me, Post-PC is less about what a device does and more about where and how it does it.

 

[Piggie]

I have no idea what the relevance of this is re: your failed point; I cannot imagine how either an answer of 'yes' or 'no' would make any difference to the OP's questions or the thrust of the discussion of the thread.

Or course it is totally relevant.

How can you answer if we are in, or moving into a "Post PC Era" unless you 1st exactly identify what a PC is in the 1st place.

If you cannot precisely determine what a "PC" actually is, then how on earth can you ever work out if we are in or headed toward an era without them.

 

[Carouser]

Or course it is totally relevant.

How can you answer if we are in, or moving into a "Post PC Era" unless you 1st exactly identify what a PC is in the 1st place.

If you cannot precisely determine what a "PC" actually is, then how on earth can you ever work out if we are in or headed toward an era without them.

I already addressed that in my first response to you. If you define PC to mean anything, then congratulations Piggie, you're right, PCs will be around forever. Your point is trivially true, it's entirely circular, and doesn't do anything for anyone.

This, like I said, has nothing to do with how Jobs used PC in 'the post-PC era', because he meant something like "the current form and interface of desktop computers, and treating them like the hub of people's computing lives".

So my point is that your point relies on lazy equivocation. I'm making a claim about how terrible your argument is, not about whether the Surface is post-PC or not. Any answer to the latter has nothing to do with the merit of your argumentative skills.

 

[Night Spring]

I think a better way to frame this question is whether we are moving toward an era of mobile computing, to which the answer would seem to be most definitely yes. I'd rather not get bogged down in semantic arguments over what constitutes a PC.

 

[Chrisg2014]

nope, bet you typed this on an iPad, and it decided that you wanted to talk about "area" instead of "era". My iPad does that to me all the time, random periods and sometimes wholesale changes; misspell one word, and it decides to replace that one word with two completely different words with a period in between. Sometimes quite humorous.

Some gentleman next to me on a cross county flight was using his iPad to type a short document. It took hours of what would have been minutes on a decent laptop. MBA would have been a better choice for him, and not that much more painful to carry. I wish apple had offered MBA 3G/4G capability, I might have ditched my iPad this go around. Just don't want to carry an extra gizmo along (mifi) when I travel.

I'm on a Macbook air...