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It's like vehicles. Desktops/workstations and even most non-tablet laptops are now analogous to small trucks such as pickups. Tablets and phones are cars. Most
by api 7y ago
It's like vehicles. Desktops/workstations and even most non-tablet laptops are now analogous to small trucks such as pickups. Tablets and phones are cars. Most people drive cars. Trucks are for work or people who like to haul stuff.
Servers and huge workstations I guess are like 18-wheelers and locomotives. :)
The "mobile is the future of everything" people were wrong. It's not that desktop is going away, but the market is re-segmenting. Most casual users don't need a desktop. They just need a UI device that can run apps and access services. So you now have a bisection of the computing device market into pro/workplace type devices and casual user devices. I suppose there's a third category too: hobbyist and enthusiast devices. That's where I'd put things like the Raspberry Pi or more techie geared laptops that run Linux.
I predict that rather than converging with mobile, desktop will actually pivot more toward pro, developer, and power user needs. Apple's recent 16 inch Pro release is a baby step in that direction on the hardware level. You'll probably see it at the software and OS level too. Desktop might actually shed a little bit of its user-friendliness gloss in favor of being unabashedly "pro." "If you don't want to know what a network, a folder, a file, or an IP address is, get a tablet."
- neogodless 7y agoSuddenly number of wheels is analogous to cores... Motorcycle - fast for gaming Car/SUV - good general purpose Truck (dually) - serious work (probably fun) 18-wheeler - move a load of loads at once But apparently that makes the Ryzen 9 3950X a 16-wheel Porsche Cayenne Turbo S? Super fun to drive but you can use it to haul...
- api 7y agoHah... yeah the analogy gets silly if you make it literal and stretch it too far. I was just using it to talk about how different types of devices specialize for different use cases. Phones: ultra-portable communication and rapid service interaction device -- basically a pocket terminal. Skill level: beginner / non-technical. Tablets: casual computing devices suitable for reading, writing, some forms of content creation, and games. Skill level: beginner / non-technical. Desktops/Laptops: more powerful and flexible devices for serious content creation, high-end gaming, development, heavy number crunching, etc. Skill level: intermediate to advanced users. They're still relatively easy to use for casual use cases but they have more knobs, expose more details, and have less training wheels / guard rails to keep you from breaking things. Servers: big machines that sit in one place in a data center, office, or basement and run lots of stuff. Skill level: mostly advanced users. SBCs like the Pi: hobbyist devices for hacking, DIY IOT, DIY automation, etc. Skill level: mostly advanced users. Then of course there's a long tail of specialized and smaller devices like watches, FitBits, IOT, etc.
- zamubafoo 7y agoPhones: Electric Scooters or Regular Bike Tablets: Electric Bike Laptops: Standard Car, SUV, or Light Work vehicle (F150 space) Desktops: Luxury, Enthusiast, or Specialist Market (Sports Cars, Anything above the F250, Hot Rod territory) Servers: Work Vehicles (Semis, Flatbeds, etc.) SBCs: DIY non-motorized vehicles IoT: Shoes I think its a great analogy. You can always get an over priced or over spec'd vehicle for your needs, but there are clear uses for some of the form factors.
- jtbayly 7y agoMost people don't need a truck, maybe, but the three top-selling vehicles in the US are trucks. And in 2017 only 35% bought cars, with the rest being trucks and SUVs.
- ajuc 7y agoUS is far from average needs of a car user. Not a representative sample.
- Bootwizard 7y agoA country the size of all of Europe is not representative of the vehicle market? Not sure I buy that.
- ajuc 7y agoUSA is very sparsely populated (35 people per square km, 174th in the world), most of the people live in countries with more than 100 people per square km. To be exact 67% of people live in such countries, and 83% of people live in countries more dense than US. Source: http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-density/ http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-dens... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aoJUhDHhhIvLRSPLsT7bzvv0rIvBT1NLg5QNp-sz2L8/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aoJUhDHhhIvLRSPLsT7b...
- nsxwolf 7y agoReally? We're the #2 consumer of cars, about half of the annual car sales of China.
- jtbayly 7y agoIt’s perfectly representative of the point, which is that the analogy is simply wrong.