Is the Personal Computer Under Attack?

[quadibloc]

Steve Jobs was recently quoted as saying:

"We're going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device - just like an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod Touch. We're going to move the hub of your digital life to the cloud."

Recently, I had posted somewhere something to the effect that I was very worried that Apple might make an announcement related to cloud storage or the App Store that might effectively demote Macintosh computers to the level of an iPad or at least that of an Android device. Thus, even with the availability from Unicomp of a buckling-spring keyboard for the Mac, I would be hesitant about buying one.

Is this confirmation of my fears?

Not really. Because he is talking about demoting the PC, not just the Mac. He can't take features out of Microsoft Windows. So the only way he can make progress towards that goal is by providing worthwhile services in the cloud that people will have a good reason to use.

In other words, it sounds as though he will be taking actions that offer computer users more choices, not less.

I'm still a bit nervous, but a lot less so.

[Hydroid]

Microsoft themselves have also been driving really hard toward cloud based things for Windows, their current push is to integrate a good amount of cloud functionality atleast into Windows 8. Unfortunately cloud is the future, and there is no stopping it now. Everyone is jumping aboard and we'll just have to adapt.

[Oqsy]

Haha. Have you read my posts?  I'll adapt for no one. I make my rules; not Jobs, Gates, Ballmer, Torvalds, or Watson.  

If these companies move to "cloud" horse****, I move my purchases to livestock and shotguns.

The consumer makes the decisions at the end of the day.

One dollar, one vote.

[curzen]

I wouldn't mind a cheap cloudy with a chance of meatballs google chrome netbook. often enough even my thinkpad is overkill to drag along.

[hyperlinked]

Is this confirmation of my fears?

I read those comments to simply mean that your PC or Mac will no longer be a required appliance to be a happy iOS device owner.

I've got to imagine that the average consumer will be more than happy to ditch their home PC in favor of something ultra portable once that device does everything that they want it to do... and then is the PC dead or does it just look different now? We're already seeing a blend of the two. Didya see the ASUS Transformer? Sounds like a really cool idea. I read it sucks ass, but it's a cute start for an idea.

If everyone's skipping around town with tablets instead of PCs, I'd imagine at least some of those people are gonna want a docking station.

I'm also not totally sure what you're saying. Your message reads like a few words or thoughts may have gotten omitted by accident.

[sndstrm]

Haha. Have you read my posts?  I'll adapt for no one. I make my rules; not Jobs, Gates, Ballmer, Torvalds, or Watson.  

If these companies move to "cloud" horse****, I move my purchases to livestock and shotguns.

The consumer makes the decisions at the end of the day.

One dollar, one vote.

I completely agree with this.

Apple holds second place on my list "Companies most likely to become Skynet".  Google is number one, and Texas Instruments holds 3rd.

[Ekaros]

Isn't this cloud stuff kinda like step backwards? Back to old terminal-mainframe model...

For normal user it might work, still there is major issues like seen on recent PSN, the good thing about current day PC is diversity, there is more than just one service.
Thin-client with minimal memory and such, is piece of junk if the cloud goes down. It shouldn't, most haven't done it too well yet, as seen with Amazon...

[7bit]

Haha. Have you read my posts?  I'll adapt for no one. I make my rules; not Jobs, Gates, Ballmer, Torvalds, or Watson.  

If these companies move to "cloud" horse****, I move my purchases to livestock and shotguns.

The consumer makes the decisions at the end of the day.

One dollar, one vote.

 
I bet you use BSD -- the system 99% of all cloud servers run with ...

[quadibloc]

I've got to imagine that the average consumer will be more than happy to ditch their home PC in favor of something ultra portable once that device does everything that they want it to do... and then is the PC dead or does it just look different now?

Well, that's the positive scenario.

The negative one would be that things change so that whether you're using a home PC or an ultraportable device, it won't do anything of much use except while you're paying by the minute for the use of some online service - which service might well be a monopoly provided by the manufacturer of your device - or its operating system.
 
Apple could still decide that one way to give its cloud services a leg up, to allow them to have an initial market, would be to cripple the Mac so as to make it dependent on them. Since the Mac has competition from Windows - even if Microsoft, also, is enthusiastic about the cloud future - there are limits to what Apple can get away with in that area. But the possibility is enough to scare me away from the Mac.

[IvanIvanovich]

Yes sadly it looks like the future. Cloud this cloud that, ARM replacing x86. Obsolescence of keyboards with either a touchscreen or flailing your arms around input method. I'd rather move straight to brain implant and be inserted into the matrix. At least that way I would think it was 1999 and still using familiar computing devices.

[HaveANiceDay]

The "cloud" is essentially a new form of vendor lock-in. Of course companies would want to push that. Think IBM Mainframes, just for every single thing you do.

[sndstrm]

...or flailing your arms around input method...

The future of user input.

[video=youtube;YtespeLin2c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtespeLin2c[/video]

[bhtooefr]

What I want is something that works seamlessly like these cloud models, yet rather than using a datacenter as the cloud, using a server under my own control.

[Findecanor]

Isn't this cloud stuff kinda like step backwards? Back to old terminal-mainframe model...

My interpretation of the term "cloud" includes that the services are able to use more resources on demand and at data centres closer to where they are needed, not just that the services are on the web.

I see that companies stamp "cloud" onto all kinds of old tech that they already have, just so that they can be  buzzword compliant.

Heh. In Sweden there is a web page that counts how many times the buzzword appears on the front page of Sweden's biggest IT industry news site. Right now it is only at 8, but I have seen it exceed 40. Horrifying ...

I've got to imagine that the average consumer will be more than happy to ditch their home PC in favor of something ultra portable once that device does everything that they want it to do...

Heh.. I know a guy who wanted to buy an iPad because he thought it would be able to replace his old PC. He had to be set straight.

I think that Microsoft is taking a step in the right direction with Windows 8 by merging the phone, pad and desktop into one platform. I just hope that they are going to execute it right.
I have wanted a fully capable, high resolution pad since the mid '90s ... and while there are many pads on the market right now with the right hardware, I still don't have it because the configurations and software available is still lacking.

[Ekaros]

Cloud certainly have it's place, but basing whole system(the end user's) isn't the best idea. Offering part of services is good, like mail or office software. On other hand what most scares me is when network or service is down, what have you left.

[Ekaros]

Much better to keep it on own HDD...

[woody]

Cloud of not boobs? Meh.

[pitashen]

I don't see how "personal computer" is under attack in anyway by the cloud services or by all those tablet trend. We are simply going through a fast paced evolution of "personal computing." Land line phones are slowly going away, but that does not mean the idea of telephone is going anywhere.

Also, if OP must know, Apple is actually behind in this whole Cloud race. They have never had much success with their .Mac and the MobileMe services. Look at DropBox, the population utilizing the service is simply phenomenal. Look at Pandora and LastFM, they are so far something Apple could only wish they had it. "Cloud" is already all around us. Therefore, what Steve Jobs did was simply an announcement stating that Apple is going to catch up with the rest of the industry in therms of Cloud services. For the better or worse.

[quadibloc]

Also, if OP must know, Apple is actually behind in this whole Cloud race.

That wasn't my main concern, though. Where Apple is ahead is in controlling - limiting - the choices of its customers. With one thing and another, I would feel nervous about buying a Macintosh, because I would be concerned that Apple might take actions in the future that would limit my choice of software - they're already encouraging Mac developers to use the App Store, even if not under the kind of restrictions which apply (some of which, of course, very legitimately for a telecommunications device) to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

It scares me when I see any major company in the computer industry aiming to put its hand into my wallet - to make me pay again and again to use my computer, for things that don't need to have recurring costs. An Internet connection comes with a monthly bill. Hard disk storage, and software, should remain things that are bought and paid for once.

Of course, Microsoft is charging an annual fee to businesses now for its operating systems; Apple isn't the only culprit.

[audioave10]

Steve Jobs is only a hero to his sheep. He knows nothing about the PC. He DOES know how to produce "cool" and make money.
He's much closer to death than a PC ever will be. The PC (and gaming) is doing better than ever and will never die.
Sony continues to prove that fact every day.
Yes, we will complain about ports, but there is still more games than ever. I have a huge backlog. Clouds are for boobs.
/rant

[alaricljs]

I will be surprised if Apple doesn't wither away after Jobs does.  There's just something about that magic turtleneck, or maybe something else he's got?

[keyb_gr]

So much for the cloud.

[Lanx]

I like Sony.

I'll post pics of my new jogging MP3 player when it arrives.

Plus Infamous is pretty nice.  As is Little Big Planet.  Free is even better.

You really should think about jogging w/ a smartphone either iphone or droid, cool jogging apps that track your speed/elevation and path from the gps.

[audioave10]

Ha...that is a classic! (and Gloria was hot)

[vapour]

Sincerely hoping that they do not move towards cloud entirely...

The networks simply cannot support that in most places, it give alot more power to the ISP's and it makes alot of sensitive information much more reachable and valuable to thieves a'la Metcalfe's Law.

oh and Hi btw!

[Bucky]

I kind of agree on the whole Apple without Jobs not doing so hot thing. Apple to me is in a slightly delicate situation where their appeal is based so much on every product they produce being a sexy industry leader. If they create only a few duds I think they can easily lose traction in the sexy category. Then again this might be the Microsoft in me talking

[Backward_Pawn]

I think desktops are already a nitch market.  Average users can get just as much functionality plus portability out of a laptop and a docking station.  Unfortunately, what I think will change is that operating systems will be geared more toward these portable users, leaving those of use who still use and enjoy our desktops in a position where things will be more locked down than they are currently.  And MS and Apple will say we don't own the OS, we just license it from them and shouldn't be able to do whatever we want.