Apple-related news doesn’t always impact the broader IT channel, but there’s something to be said about recent developments at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2010. Indeed, the conference apparently included nothing about Macintosh computers and the ubiquitous Mac OS operating system they run. While Apple’s vision may be a future of iPhones and iPads, the future for the SMB/Enterprise community is actually one without a PC as well. Don’t believe me? Read on…
The two biggest upcoming trends we’ve been looking at — heck — everyone has been looking at are virtualization and cloud-computing. Both of these technologies, which in some ways compliment each other, do not rely on traditional ‘PCs.’ Virtualization introduces the idea of a thin or zero-client, and cloud-computing introduces the idea that the computer is non-essential, so long as a browser window is attached to something with enough CPU power.
In a way, it harkens back to the days of terminal emulation; with one super-computer running the show. But what about the laptop, you say? With BlackBerry and a plethora of other mobile devices entering the SMB and Enterprise world, even the idea of a laptop for travel is starting to seem unnecessary. The iPad has shown that with just a keyboard and a screen, a lot of work can get done. Even the netbook strays more and more away from the idea of a traditional PC as operating systems like Chrome OS and MeeGo, Moblin and Ubuntu offshoots enter the arena. These operating systems are designed to eradicate the idea of a traditional desktop environment and give you just what you need either locally, or on the cloud exclusively.
If you think about it, more and more technology is being designed around having your information when you need it, and a lot of it is essentially finding ways to take the information off that ball-and-chain PC box in your house and make it easily available elsewhere. Google Apps, DropBox, Box.net, (insert your favorite cloud service here) are changing the way we edit, review and consume content on a scale that increasingly makes the traditional idea of the PC obsolete.
There will still be super-computers and servers, and high-tech PCs for professional work and gaming, but those devices can eventually be seen like appliances and less like the cozy box with all your family pictures on it.
Likewise, the savings on security software and IT management in the SMB and Enterprise (over the long-term) from virtualization and cloud computing will add up. I would imagine at some point it’ll be a no-brainer to move everything to private clouds and virtualized infrastructures. With the right type of thin- or zero-client, the only upgrades required would be on the main server, be it storage, CPU or RAM. (As a former help-desk technician, I can’t tell you how much time and money was spent on software, RAM and HDD’s, and how much of a hassle it was to re-purpose an old computer instead of getting a new one.)
So is the death of the traditional PC as we know it coming soon? Maybe it’s not around the corner, but in the next 10 years I think it’ll be unlikely that ‘home base’ will exist on a hard drive in a home office and more likely it will exist on a cloud.
Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.
Read More About This Topic
Share This Post
Tags: Apple | BlackBerry | Chrome OS | Cloud computing | iPad | iPhone | iPod | Mac OS X | SMB | Steve Jobs | virtualization
Interact: Add a Comment | Trackback Link | Permalink
Subscribe: RSS Feed
Don't miss Charlene O'Hanlon's weekly columns...
Just a friendly reminder: The VAR Guy doesn’t always agree with his team of contributors. Our resident blogger believes PCs will never die. They’ll just change form factors… coming in different shapes, sizes and designs for various market segments. And Q1 2010 PC shipments apparently set a record. Still, blog author David Courbanou has a point: Apple’s main business has shifted to mobile computing. And portions of the PC market certainly seem to envy Apple these days…
-TVG
Death of the PC? No. Death of the Mac? Yes. Apple will eliminate all products that aren’t fully locked down (like the iPhone, iPod, and iPad).
Bill@2: Interesting perspective. The VAR Guy uses a mix of Mac and PC products. He’s not willing to let go of either platform… even if Steve Jobs comes calling for them.
-TVG
Death of the PC is far more likely than death of the Mac at this point. No one wants it anymore. Used to be people were afraid of the Mac. Now, literally EVERYONE wants one. Talk to your neighbors, co-workers, etc…
One thing I learned a long time ago about computer users is that they ALL want the best they can get. Doesn’t matter if they need it or not. Today, everyone knows the Mac is the better product, just as everyone knows a PC can’t function very long on the ‘net without coming to a crawl. Sure, a tech user can keep on top of it, but why should they have to do all the extra work? Shouldn’t the computer do that?
Bill, exactly what is going to keep the PC alive? IT nerds? These are the only people that want it to live on. Seriously, no one cares about the PC anymore. No one even plays games on the PC anymore. I think M$ would rather lose money on the xBox (make out of old Mac processors too, how ironic.)
Besides, the Mac has more software! (remember that old argument?) Far more! Windows is just an ‘app’ on the Mac–exactly what it deserves to be. After all, it was stillborn from the Mac in the first place. Kind of restores my faith in humanity, actually.
Brian: The VAR Guy runs Mac, Windows and Linux. But the overall PC market remains 90 percent Windows. The shift you describe would require years and years to unfold… if it happens at all.
Still, The VAR Guy never considered buying a Mac … until Mr. Jobs returned to the CEO chair and shifted Mac OS to a modern kernel and the Intel foundation…
-TVG
VAR Guy: PC will never completely go away, but I think it’s already lost it’s mojo. It’s good enough for simple tasks, just not really a viable alternative to the Mac for general computing, IMHO. Also, I liked what you said last night. To paraphrase, IT staffers have propped themselves up with buggy software for decades.
Brian: The VAR Guy rather enjoys your perspectives. Keep ‘em coming and thanks for visiting TheVARguy.com
-TVG
Interesting debate here. My 2 cents are a tad biased as our business revolves around managing PC’s (soon to be Mac’s) and the end user, in what we refer to as the workstation.
While our users range from SMB employees to consumers across North America, every day we witness the figures TVG quoted, RE Windows holding 90% of the market.
While the population is aging, and the next big age cohort (gen y’s) are starting to hold a more predominant place in the market… there are still a tonne of users who have “grown up” and lived with Windows based products… users who may be slowly retiring but certainly aren’t leaving the market anytime soon (especially in technology years).
I agree that there will be a shift towards thin and mobile clients as economically speaking it just makes sense.
However these clients, just as PC’s do today, will need to be updated, tuned up and so forth to ensure reliable performance. I believe this theory will remain true for many more years… and that there is a lot more money to be made in doing so both in the consumer and SMB segments.
I suppose that this shift to the cloud, regardless of how unproven it is in terms of market dominance, reiterates IBM’s theory of computing from way before my time.
I find a bit of this amusing – comparing a BlackBerry to a laptop and declaring that MAC will replace the PC are the two tops.
1st. The BlackBerry, while handy, doesn’t really let one type out a entire report and print it. I suppose someone could type it out on a BlackBerry, but I would pity their hands. Need I really go into more detail than this?
2nd. As The Var Guy says, 90% of people still use PC; therefore, who do the hackers and spammers namely target? My friends always argue that they’ll get a MAC OS simply because viruses that effect Windows can’t effect a MAC thanks to the coding. All the background junk which PC incorporates to protect its users makes the system performance seem a bit sluggish, but if 90% of the population shift to using MAC, who’s going to start getting the bulk of the malware?
As for tiny, hand-held devices (such as cell phones, iPods, or even electronic readers like the Amazon’s Kindle): I simply can’t see them replacing PC because they won’t be able to COMFORTABLY perform all the functions the users would want – not unless people are ok with severe arthritis.
I thought my response would come off as biased so I will point to a well written counter-point:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/mobile/mArticle.asp?id=58254
Jay: Thanks for the link and healthy reality check. More than 14,000 people are attending this week’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. — Another sure sign that PCs remain alive and well…
-TVG
I’ll fight off putting my private information in “the cloud” for as long as possible. When I need to distribute it, it will always be securely point-to-point, and I’ll expect to have the computing resources at each point to view and process it.
Dave: Is your parole information in somebody else’s cloud? Bank account information? Mortgage information? Chances are your identity and financial information already float around in someone’s cloud, The VAR Guy believes.
-TVG
I think PCs will die at some point, but it won’t be at the hands of iPhones or iPads. PCs will die when a) Laptops (and I mean easy to carry 13 – 15 inch ones, not 17 inch behemoths) become just as powerful and just as cheap as PCs, or b) when tablets with USB ports (or some other universal port) for keyboards, printers, HDDs, and other peripherals become as powerful and as cheap as PCs. In either situation the “PC killer” (more like the evolution of the PC) will HAVE to allow the user to customize at will and do all the stuff that a PC lets one do. We are already much too acclimated to being able to type up reports, crunch numbers, do research, run simulations, publish, chat, game, e-mail, youtube, and respond to economically motivated posts on the same machine that we keep family pictures and watch porn on. I highly doubt that the many bennefits the PC (Laptop / PC Tablet) has will be easily replaced by stand-alone appliances.
I’m also pretty sure you didn’t write your article in a Blackberry…
Brian:
You say the PC is good enough for simple tasks – but not complex tasks? Yet we are using programs like AutoCAD, 3dsmax, Maya, Photoshop, Premiere, the list goes on. Windows Server with Exchange is light years ahead of anything Apple has to offer. I think you are getting a little ahead of yourself. There are so many more powerful programs on the PC than the Mac. Not to mention games. The fastest graphics cards and processors can be found in PC boxes. Apple after all switched to Intel (Home of the PC).
The Windows 7 user experience is superior to Mac OS Leopard and Snow Leopard. I have Leopard on a Netbook with an external 22″ LCD screen. Recently I had to take the LCD offsite. I then discovered that many of the windows in Leopard were larger than the size of the Netbook screen. And since there is only one corner of the window that can be resized I could not even resize or fit the window to the size of the Netbook screen!! The part that I needed was not visible and I could not bring it into view by dragging the window around to the limits of the screen.
This is completely ridiculous on the part of Apple not to even provide this very basic feature. Windows and Linux can do this with ease. What’s the reason for preventing the user from maximizing or resizing windows more easily??
That being said I do like the disk utility and built in imaging functionality that is very easy and powerful.
I have respect for Apple and think the iPhone is awesome. But let’s just stay objective and realistic when discussing PCs, Macs, Windows 7 and Mac OS.
om resizing or maximizing windows in Mac OS more easily??
Hi John,
Thanks for your perspectives. I just thought I’d let you in on a Mac OS X secret that most people don’t know. The “green” button at the top of a Mac window isn’t a “maximize” button like it is in Windows. While the red and yellow buttons are “close” and “minimize”, the green button is actually a “fit” button. If you have a window open that is larger than the screen, pressing the green button will “fit” the window to your screen size.
For instance, when I drag a full-screened browser window from my 22 Inch monitor, into the display on my MacBook (running dual display), I’ll press the green button to get it to take up the correct amount of space. You might want to try very this approach BEFORE you unplug your monitor from your notebook.
What’s more, every Mac application, including Finder, has a “Window” option in the menu bar, which let’s you arrange your windows, with an option for “zoom in front.” Again, this option will fit the window to your screen.
So as you can see, Apple very much provides this “basic feature.” I think the only thing completely ridiculous is that users expect Mac OS X to work the same way Windows does, and don’t take the time to actually do a little research and find out how to fix their so-called “problem.”
Just because you don’t drive stick, doesn’t mean it’s ridiculous there is no automatic transmission.
Brian: I am a Diehard Gamer. The site I do “some” game downloading from, has 13 games (those for under $10.) available for MAC, whereas – -the site has 463, such games, available for PC. Brian, you are wrong as to the PC’s demise. I cannot see gamers diddling with earphones stuck in and playing with a wobbly ipad on their laps. What say you?
Just a home user…but I felt the need to respond to one statement here. Brian, when you say “everyone wants a Mac” you are either delusional or just lying. I don’t know anyone who wants one—the PC is much more user-friendly for the average home user and always has been. As for that crack about “slowing to a crawl” never happens. Not since the introduction of Broadband. As for “keeping the pc clear of clutter” the pc does do that for you.
Now, you love your Mac and that’s fine. But I have loved the PC since I bought by first back in 1990 and I love it still. Never cared for the Mac O/S—just a matter of personal preference really, but there it is.
“Dave: Is your parole information in somebody else’s cloud? Bank account information? Mortgage information? Chances are your identity and financial information already float around in someone’s cloud.”
Parole information? Heh heh.
But seriously … yes, some of my information is stored on other servers. But I consider that to be “shared” information, if you will … I enter into contracts with companies that require this information to process part of my life, and I expect them to keep it secure. Any information that is purely personal, I keep with me, just as I don’t make copies of my house key and distribute them to my neighbors.