Um, no. Wow. This is simply an extreme over-generalization of a single use-case being applied to entire industries. The author of the article is also a VC wit

Um, no. Wow. This is simply an extreme over-generalization of a single use-case being applied to entire industries. The author of the article is also a VC with a vested interest in 'apps'. Shocker. Nice press-hack Mr. Wilson, but present-day facts and digital computing history are not in your favor. Moore's law and Gilder's law illustrate that a democratization of hardware and connectivity outpace the ability of generic software to be written to connect them. The future is in MORE devices, not less. Granted, the practical use-cases for "generic devices running task-specific apps" grows as interfaces become standardized and increased portable computing power allows for more near real-time workflows from non-dedicated real-time hardware. All modern TVs and Set-top boxes are really powerful computers running "video apps". We are finally arriving at dawn of the "univeral remote", but home media consumption is an extremely small sliver of computing. Wherever safety, security, and low-attention/muscle-memory/real-time response properties dominate the workflow, a task-specific combination of hardware & software (e.g. a Device) works better. And those devices are getting cheaper and cheaper to produce every day. For example, look at the large variety of input and monitoring Devices which come coupled with household products (stereos, garage door openers, cars, hot tubs, baby monitors, etc.). Further from home, Internet routers used to simply be generic Unix boxes. Now routers run their own hardware platforms and dedicated operating systems. The same applies to industrial welding/manipulation robots. Input used to come exclusively from serial line keyboard terminals. Now a whole range of dedicated input Devices (mice, trackpads, haptic probes, eye-trackers, isometric sticks) and their respective software drivers, provide the vast bulk of user input data. People aren't going to trust the safety and security of their health, homes, cars, or children to the latest v2.1 update in the App store, but they'll (somewhat unhappily) wait on the latest firmware update while their Scientific Atlanta cable box reboots.