I think a "post-pc" device should be able to stand on it's own two legs. Why? I ask seriously. Your interpretation of the phrase post-PC as "you don't need to

I think a "post-pc" device should be able to stand on it's own two legs. Why? I ask seriously. Your interpretation of the phrase post-PC as "you don't need to see a PC ever again" is just one interpretation, and perhaps not the one that Steve Jobs meant. [1] It's a deliberately ambiguous term, like most statements about trends and fashion. He's talking about the PC era. Just because an era ends doesn't mean that all its legacy goes away. Indeed, it can mean quite the opposite. The mainframe era is over, and yet there may be more mainframes in existence now than ever. The era of recorded music sales is, arguably, in decline, yet that doesn't mean that we don't have recorded music anymore. In that particular case, it means that recorded music has become so cheap and ubiquitous that it's like air, so it's devalued and its profit margins have dwindled. Kind of like PCs. I've always felt that the iOS ecosystem was post-PC not because it is trying to replace the PC, but because its design is predicated on the assumption that everyone who actually wants a PC has one by now. So of course iOS doesn't have to support, say, emacs: If you want to run emacs you do so on your PC. If by some miracle you want a PC but don't have one already, there's probably a disused one sitting at a nearby garage sale marked "$25" that would do in a pinch. And, more controversially, of course iOS has a closed and curated ecosystem: If you want an open ecosystem, pick up a PC for a few bucks. They're all over the place. I had to throw away two of them last year. --- [1] I mean, not this year. Apple still makes PCs. Surely they won't declare the PC dead until they stop making them.