I watched the Apple Keynote tonight and was struck by how often I heard the term “Post PC.” When Steve Jobs and Apple start using these catch phrases, it is no accident. Apple has its own lexicon that starts internally but, at some point, often finds its way into Keynote speeches and product descriptions.
I believe “Post PC” is the newest of these phrases. We’ve all speculated about the future of technology in light of the explosive growth of iOS and the growing legions of mobile competitors. To the people at Apple, I don’t believe this dialogue is anything new. Internally, I think they’ve been planning this for years.
Looking back, I suspect Apple first started contemplating the Post PC world when iPods were selling like hotcakes. I’m certain that by the time the iPhone showed up, Apple’s Post PC plans were already in full swing. When the iPad appeared, the shoe dropped for the rest of us. Steve Jobs confirmed this last year at the AllThingsD conference when he talked of trucks and cars and how the PCs we all know and love are going to become the trucks of technology: still useful, but not necessary for most.
This all culminates today with Apple’s repeated mantra about the “Post PC” world. Why are we just hearing about this now? Because Apple is already sitting on top of the mountain in this new order.
I’ve written before about Mac user’s fear of returning to those dark days. I suspect there is a certain degree of that also ingrained in the Apple corporate culture. I’m not sure I’d call it fear so much as resolve with this second chance. Never again.
Never again will Apple blow its lead. Never again will Apple seize defeat from the jaws of victory. Never again in this new Post PC World.
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Job's is clearly pointing out the direction of the future. I expect that ten years from now we will wonder why so many people of this time did not see this coming.
Job's is clearly pointing out the direction of the future. I expect that ten years from now we will wonder why so many people of this time did not see this coming.
Job's is clearly pointing out the direction of the future. I expect that ten years from now we will wonder why so many people of this time did not see this coming.
Job's is clearly pointing out the direction of the future. I expect that ten years from now we will wonder why so many people of this time did not see this coming.
Job's is clearly pointing out the direction of the future. I expect that ten years from now we will wonder why so many people of this time did not see this coming.
I doubt we're headed for a post-PC world, if by that is meant a world without desktop computers. Most business offices will continue to use them because their employees work at their desks and not at Starbucks, because desktops are cheaper, often more versatile, and sturdier, and because it's much harder for one to be stolen. (I'd also add that most employees don't want their primary work tool–a computer–to be something their employer can send home with them.) That's a huge slice of the market that isn't going away.
What is changing is a move to services hosted 'in the cloud,' in part because that reduces the need for in-house tech support to manage backups and upgrades. The community center where I work just upgraded all their desktops to more desktops, but is moving their buggy Access databases to cloud services like Salesforce. Apple is arriving very late to that party.
We need to realize that Apple's security mania has also made it a closed, insular world. Apple has never understood the everyday life of businesses and has apparently never tried. Their current desktop line offers nothing built like the great bulk of business desktops. They offer only an out-sized and over-powered Mac Pro and iMacs that are almost impossible to service. Watch Dell if you want to see a business that understands businesses and where they're going. Don't look to Apple with its talk of a post-PC world.
Apple also lacks the basic mindset that enables businesses to work together. The 'vision' at Apple is an artistic one, and artists, particularly the rich ones, tend to be self-centered and dictatorial, i.e. run like Apple. For an illustration, read one of the biographies of Steve Jobs.
That artistic isolation lies at the heart of Apple's muddled and evolving policy of "give us 30% of retail for nothing or your app gets yanked." Most business don't attempt to bully like that because they know they need the goodwill and trust of those they do business with (and even competitors). And those that do try to bully–AT&T, IBM and Microsoft–eventually get cut down to size.
Worst of all, there's no trust and little goodwill between Apple and those who develop applications for Apple, particularly for iOS. They know that Apple will yank their app at any time, giving vague reasons when the real reason is that their product is better designed and more successful than what Apple's doing. That's as true of a little Wifi sniffing app that I like (eWiFi, no longer available), as it is of Apple's recent blocking of Sony's ereader app and hints that it will do the same with those from Amazon and B&N. The ebooks sales of the latter two are leaving the iBookstore in the dust. Apple doesn't like that.
I short, I would not take that seriously much of the chatter coming out of Cupertino. The artistic vision has its place but it is often a strange one, as anyone who is around artists knows. Mobile devices aren't about to end desktop computers. Both will exist alongside the other far into the future.
I doubt we're headed for a post-PC world, if by that is meant a world without desktop computers. Most business offices will continue to use them because their employees work at their desks and not at Starbucks, because desktops are cheaper, often more versatile, and sturdier, and because it's much harder for one to be stolen. (I'd also add that most employees don't want their primary work tool–a computer–to be something their employer can send home with them.) That's a huge slice of the market that isn't going away.
What is changing is a move to services hosted 'in the cloud,' in part because that reduces the need for in-house tech support to manage backups and upgrades. The community center where I work just upgraded all their desktops to more desktops, but is moving their buggy Access databases to cloud services like Salesforce. Apple is arriving very late to that party.
We need to realize that Apple's security mania has also made it a closed, insular world. Apple has never understood the everyday life of businesses and has apparently never tried. Their current desktop line offers nothing built like the great bulk of business desktops. They offer only an out-sized and over-powered Mac Pro and iMacs that are almost impossible to service. Watch Dell if you want to see a business that understands businesses and where they're going. Don't look to Apple with its talk of a post-PC world.
Apple also lacks the basic mindset that enables businesses to work together. The 'vision' at Apple is an artistic one, and artists, particularly the rich ones, tend to be self-centered and dictatorial, i.e. run like Apple. For an illustration, read one of the biographies of Steve Jobs.
That artistic isolation lies at the heart of Apple's muddled and evolving policy of "give us 30% of retail for nothing or your app gets yanked." Most business don't attempt to bully like that because they know they need the goodwill and trust of those they do business with (and even competitors). And those that do try to bully–AT&T, IBM and Microsoft–eventually get cut down to size.
Worst of all, there's no trust and little goodwill between Apple and those who develop applications for Apple, particularly for iOS. They know that Apple will yank their app at any time, giving vague reasons when the real reason is that their product is better designed and more successful than what Apple's doing. That's as true of a little Wifi sniffing app that I like (eWiFi, no longer available), as it is of Apple's recent blocking of Sony's ereader app and hints that it will do the same with those from Amazon and B&N. The ebooks sales of the latter two are leaving the iBookstore in the dust. Apple doesn't like that.
I short, I would not take that seriously much of the chatter coming out of Cupertino. The artistic vision has its place but it is often a strange one, as anyone who is around artists knows. Mobile devices aren't about to end desktop computers. Both will exist alongside the other far into the future.
I doubt we're headed for a post-PC world, if by that is meant a world without desktop computers. Most business offices will continue to use them because their employees work at their desks and not at Starbucks, because desktops are cheaper, often more versatile, and sturdier, and because it's much harder for one to be stolen. (I'd also add that most employees don't want their primary work tool–a computer–to be something their employer can send home with them.) That's a huge slice of the market that isn't going away.
What is changing is a move to services hosted 'in the cloud,' in part because that reduces the need for in-house tech support to manage backups and upgrades. The community center where I work just upgraded all their desktops to more desktops, but is moving their buggy Access databases to cloud services like Salesforce. Apple is arriving very late to that party.
We need to realize that Apple's security mania has also made it a closed, insular world. Apple has never understood the everyday life of businesses and has apparently never tried. Their current desktop line offers nothing built like the great bulk of business desktops. They offer only an out-sized and over-powered Mac Pro and iMacs that are almost impossible to service. Watch Dell if you want to see a business that understands businesses and where they're going. Don't look to Apple with its talk of a post-PC world.
Apple also lacks the basic mindset that enables businesses to work together. The 'vision' at Apple is an artistic one, and artists, particularly the rich ones, tend to be self-centered and dictatorial, i.e. run like Apple. For an illustration, read one of the biographies of Steve Jobs.
That artistic isolation lies at the heart of Apple's muddled and evolving policy of "give us 30% of retail for nothing or your app gets yanked." Most business don't attempt to bully like that because they know they need the goodwill and trust of those they do business with (and even competitors). And those that do try to bully–AT&T, IBM and Microsoft–eventually get cut down to size.
Worst of all, there's no trust and little goodwill between Apple and those who develop applications for Apple, particularly for iOS. They know that Apple will yank their app at any time, giving vague reasons when the real reason is that their product is better designed and more successful than what Apple's doing. That's as true of a little Wifi sniffing app that I like (eWiFi, no longer available), as it is of Apple's recent blocking of Sony's ereader app and hints that it will do the same with those from Amazon and B&N. The ebooks sales of the latter two are leaving the iBookstore in the dust. Apple doesn't like that.
I short, I would not take that seriously much of the chatter coming out of Cupertino. The artistic vision has its place but it is often a strange one, as anyone who is around artists knows. Mobile devices aren't about to end desktop computers. Both will exist alongside the other far into the future.
I doubt we're headed for a post-PC world, if by that is meant a world without desktop computers. Most business offices will continue to use them because their employees work at their desks and not at Starbucks, because desktops are cheaper, often more versatile, and sturdier, and because it's much harder for one to be stolen. (I'd also add that most employees don't want their primary work tool–a computer–to be something their employer can send home with them.) That's a huge slice of the market that isn't going away.
What is changing is a move to services hosted 'in the cloud,' in part because that reduces the need for in-house tech support to manage backups and upgrades. The community center where I work just upgraded all their desktops to more desktops, but is moving their buggy Access databases to cloud services like Salesforce. Apple is arriving very late to that party.
We need to realize that Apple's security mania has also made it a closed, insular world. Apple has never understood the everyday life of businesses and has apparently never tried. Their current desktop line offers nothing built like the great bulk of business desktops. They offer only an out-sized and over-powered Mac Pro and iMacs that are almost impossible to service. Watch Dell if you want to see a business that understands businesses and where they're going. Don't look to Apple with its talk of a post-PC world.
Apple also lacks the basic mindset that enables businesses to work together. The 'vision' at Apple is an artistic one, and artists, particularly the rich ones, tend to be self-centered and dictatorial, i.e. run like Apple. For an illustration, read one of the biographies of Steve Jobs.
That artistic isolation lies at the heart of Apple's muddled and evolving policy of "give us 30% of retail for nothing or your app gets yanked." Most business don't attempt to bully like that because they know they need the goodwill and trust of those they do business with (and even competitors). And those that do try to bully–AT&T, IBM and Microsoft–eventually get cut down to size.
Worst of all, there's no trust and little goodwill between Apple and those who develop applications for Apple, particularly for iOS. They know that Apple will yank their app at any time, giving vague reasons when the real reason is that their product is better designed and more successful than what Apple's doing. That's as true of a little Wifi sniffing app that I like (eWiFi, no longer available), as it is of Apple's recent blocking of Sony's ereader app and hints that it will do the same with those from Amazon and B&N. The ebooks sales of the latter two are leaving the iBookstore in the dust. Apple doesn't like that.
I short, I would not take that seriously much of the chatter coming out of Cupertino. The artistic vision has its place but it is often a strange one, as anyone who is around artists knows. Mobile devices aren't about to end desktop computers. Both will exist alongside the other far into the future.
I doubt we're headed for a post-PC world, if by that is meant a world without desktop computers. Most business offices will continue to use them because their employees work at their desks and not at Starbucks, because desktops are cheaper, often more versatile, and sturdier, and because it's much harder for one to be stolen. (I'd also add that most employees don't want their primary work tool–a computer–to be something their employer can send home with them.) That's a huge slice of the market that isn't going away.
What is changing is a move to services hosted 'in the cloud,' in part because that reduces the need for in-house tech support to manage backups and upgrades. The community center where I work just upgraded all their desktops to more desktops, but is moving their buggy Access databases to cloud services like Salesforce. Apple is arriving very late to that party.
We need to realize that Apple's security mania has also made it a closed, insular world. Apple has never understood the everyday life of businesses and has apparently never tried. Their current desktop line offers nothing built like the great bulk of business desktops. They offer only an out-sized and over-powered Mac Pro and iMacs that are almost impossible to service. Watch Dell if you want to see a business that understands businesses and where they're going. Don't look to Apple with its talk of a post-PC world.
Apple also lacks the basic mindset that enables businesses to work together. The 'vision' at Apple is an artistic one, and artists, particularly the rich ones, tend to be self-centered and dictatorial, i.e. run like Apple. For an illustration, read one of the biographies of Steve Jobs.
That artistic isolation lies at the heart of Apple's muddled and evolving policy of "give us 30% of retail for nothing or your app gets yanked." Most business don't attempt to bully like that because they know they need the goodwill and trust of those they do business with (and even competitors). And those that do try to bully–AT&T, IBM and Microsoft–eventually get cut down to size.
Worst of all, there's no trust and little goodwill between Apple and those who develop applications for Apple, particularly for iOS. They know that Apple will yank their app at any time, giving vague reasons when the real reason is that their product is better designed and more successful than what Apple's doing. That's as true of a little Wifi sniffing app that I like (eWiFi, no longer available), as it is of Apple's recent blocking of Sony's ereader app and hints that it will do the same with those from Amazon and B&N. The ebooks sales of the latter two are leaving the iBookstore in the dust. Apple doesn't like that.
I short, I would not take that seriously much of the chatter coming out of Cupertino. The artistic vision has its place but it is often a strange one, as anyone who is around artists knows. Mobile devices aren't about to end desktop computers. Both will exist alongside the other far into the future.
It has always been the nature of humans to speculate on how a new idea or invention will influence or change the future. But rarely have we been even close to predicting what's to come. I think is healthy to always remember 'Anything is possible!'
It has always been the nature of humans to speculate on how a new idea or invention will influence or change the future. But rarely have we been even close to predicting what's to come. I think is healthy to always remember 'Anything is possible!'
It has always been the nature of humans to speculate on how a new idea or invention will influence or change the future. But rarely have we been even close to predicting what's to come. I think is healthy to always remember 'Anything is possible!'
It has always been the nature of humans to speculate on how a new idea or invention will influence or change the future. But rarely have we been even close to predicting what's to come. I think is healthy to always remember 'Anything is possible!'
It has always been the nature of humans to speculate on how a new idea or invention will influence or change the future. But rarely have we been even close to predicting what's to come. I think is healthy to always remember 'Anything is possible!'
"I doubt we're headed for a post-PC world, if by that is meant a world without desktop computers."
That is not what 'post-pc' means. (The term became memetic after Ray Ozzie used it in October of 2010, AFAIK, although Jobs had been brandishing it prior.) What it does mean is interaction and creation independent of the desktop, something we're already seeing with smartphones and iPads. It's even rather easy to see situations where the technology abandons any need for the desktop whatsoever- a very simple software change and cloud storage would do that for iProducts, almost immediately. But the material ecosystem of PC, monitor, desk- that's disappearing rapidly, especially among young adults, who might not have a desktop PC, or a landline phone, but a laptop and a smartphone, and only need an AC outlet and a place to sit for a spell.
It may seem like a scary thought for a publication that calls itself PCWorld, but I think the idea of PCs becoming "like trucks" is probably overblown. At least for quite some time. Yes, tablets are affecting PC sales, in that people are buying tablets or new, more powerful smartphones as "companion PCs" more and more. This is impacting the market for inexpensive, small, long-battery-life netbooks and ultraportables. It's not really supplanting the PC, however.
http://www.cheapcheapcomputers.com
It may seem like a scary thought for a publication that calls itself PCWorld, but I think the idea of PCs becoming "like trucks" is probably overblown. At least for quite some time. Yes, tablets are affecting PC sales, in that people are buying tablets or new, more powerful smartphones as "companion PCs" more and more. This is impacting the market for inexpensive, small, long-battery-life netbooks and ultraportables. It's not really supplanting the PC, however.
http://www.cheapcheapcomputers.com
It may seem like a scary thought for a publication that calls itself PCWorld, but I think the idea of PCs becoming "like trucks" is probably overblown. At least for quite some time. Yes, tablets are affecting PC sales, in that people are buying tablets or new, more powerful smartphones as "companion PCs" more and more. This is impacting the market for inexpensive, small, long-battery-life netbooks and ultraportables. It's not really supplanting the PC, however.
http://www.cheapcheapcomputers.com
It may seem like a scary thought for a publication that calls itself PCWorld, but I think the idea of PCs becoming "like trucks" is probably overblown. At least for quite some time. Yes, tablets are affecting PC sales, in that people are buying tablets or new, more powerful smartphones as "companion PCs" more and more. This is impacting the market for inexpensive, small, long-battery-life netbooks and ultraportables. It's not really supplanting the PC, however.
http://www.cheapcheapcomputers.com
It may seem like a scary thought for a publication that calls itself PCWorld, but I think the idea of PCs becoming "like trucks" is probably overblown. At least for quite some time. Yes, tablets are affecting PC sales, in that people are buying tablets or new, more powerful smartphones as "companion PCs" more and more. This is impacting the market for inexpensive, small, long-battery-life netbooks and ultraportables. It's not really supplanting the PC, however.
http://www.cheapcheapcomputers.com