5 ms·

"the post PC era" is what the rest of us mortals have been calling "mobile" for about 10 years. but more power to ya, guys!

reinhardt 15y ago
"mobile" is old school. Apparently they're talking about the "post mobile" era but we wouldn't understand anyway.
erikpukinskis 15y ago
The devices people referred to as "mobile" for all those years weren't ever really intended as PC replacements... except perhaps in the developing world, where there weren't many PCs to replace. "The post PC era" is meant to refer to a world where (except in some specific professional contexts) people largely stop buying PCs because of a new class of mobile devices that takes over their workload entirely. If I say "the mobile era" to people, that means something very different than "the post PC era". This is what language is for. We create new words so we can talk about new things, even when they're small changes. Larry Ellison whines about the word "cloud" and insists it's just "servers". But "cloud" is about instantaneous provisioning and other infrastructure that lets you target an undifferentiated set of servers, rather than having to administer each server one by one. And unlike a "cluster" you don't generally own the whole thing. What word should we use, if not "cloud"? Yes, it's still servers. Yes, the iPad is a mobile device. Yes servers and mobile devices are old. But whats your problem with using new words for the parts of these phenomena which are new?
- jseliger 15y ago
  "The post PC era" is meant to refer to a world where (except in some specific professional contexts) people largely stop buying PCs because of a new class of mobile devices that takes over their workload entirely. Then I think we're a long way from seeing this era, simply because anything that requires more than a couple lines of text isn't just better on a keyboard than other input devices—it's vastly, insanely better (at the moment), a problem I don't see being solved in the nearish future. Rather, I suspect many if not most people will have one PC-esque device for keyboard heavy things and one or more "mobile" devices, using your definition. This also assumes you're not counting laptops under your "mobile" rubric, which I don't think you are. Anyway. I don't even see desktops going away all that soon because of one thing that gets lost on HN discussion: they're cheap: http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-laptopnotebook/ http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-lapt... .
  - mahyarm 15y ago
    They'll just put their iPads into a keyboard dock, or bring a keyboard attachment like the HP TC1100 had. The keyboard could be something like 100g by itself too.
  - glassx 15y ago
    "Then I think we're a long way from seeing this era" Agreed, but we're just starting, maybe in a few years, who knows... IMO, the term post-PC is a nice way to differentiate Android/iOS/WebOS/etc tablets from previous generation tablets that ran Windows or some Desktop version of Linux.
    - hugh3 15y ago
      I think the laptop, rather than tablet, form factor is going to dominate in the medium-term future, because the portability vs usability tradeoff just doesn't encourage giving up your keyboard. That doesn't necessarily mean that the laptops of the future will have a full-featured OS rather than a locked-down iOS-style OS. I mean, I'm sure yours will, and mine will, but will your mother's?
      - glassx 15y ago
        Oh, agreed. And the newer ultrabooks make the portability vs usability tradeoff much much smaller. And maybe open/closed OSs will eventually converge. Look at Lion and Windows 8... I just hope they remain open!!!
  - jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
    People don't stop buying the old stuff just because there's new stuff. See also: horses, bicycles, cars.
    - mcantelon 15y ago
      Yeah, which is why the "post-PC" terminology has a propaganda tone. It's not going to be "post-PC": more like "pop computing" or "computing lite".
r0s 15y ago
I consider all laptops non-pc embedded systems. It's purely an arbitrary definition; but to me, PC means open, standard hardware.

reinhardt 15y ago

"mobile" is old school. Apparently they're talking about the "post mobile" era but we wouldn't understand anyway.

erikpukinskis 15y ago

The devices people referred to as "mobile" for all those years weren't ever really intended as PC replacements... except perhaps in the developing world, where there weren't many PCs to replace. "The post PC era" is meant to refer to a world where (except in some specific professional contexts) people largely stop buying PCs because of a new class of mobile devices that takes over their workload entirely. If I say "the mobile era" to people, that means something very different than "the post PC era". This is what language is for. We create new words so we can talk about new things, even when they're small changes. Larry Ellison whines about the word "cloud" and insists it's just "servers". But "cloud" is about instantaneous provisioning and other infrastructure that lets you target an undifferentiated set of servers, rather than having to administer each server one by one. And unlike a "cluster" you don't generally own the whole thing. What word should we use, if not "cloud"? Yes, it's still servers. Yes, the iPad is a mobile device. Yes servers and mobile devices are old. But whats your problem with using new words for the parts of these phenomena which are new?

jseliger 15y ago
"The post PC era" is meant to refer to a world where (except in some specific professional contexts) people largely stop buying PCs because of a new class of mobile devices that takes over their workload entirely. Then I think we're a long way from seeing this era, simply because anything that requires more than a couple lines of text isn't just better on a keyboard than other input devices—it's vastly, insanely better (at the moment), a problem I don't see being solved in the nearish future. Rather, I suspect many if not most people will have one PC-esque device for keyboard heavy things and one or more "mobile" devices, using your definition. This also assumes you're not counting laptops under your "mobile" rubric, which I don't think you are. Anyway. I don't even see desktops going away all that soon because of one thing that gets lost on HN discussion: they're cheap: http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-laptopnotebook/ http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-lapt... .
- mahyarm 15y ago
  They'll just put their iPads into a keyboard dock, or bring a keyboard attachment like the HP TC1100 had. The keyboard could be something like 100g by itself too.
- glassx 15y ago
  "Then I think we're a long way from seeing this era" Agreed, but we're just starting, maybe in a few years, who knows... IMO, the term post-PC is a nice way to differentiate Android/iOS/WebOS/etc tablets from previous generation tablets that ran Windows or some Desktop version of Linux.
  - hugh3 15y ago
    I think the laptop, rather than tablet, form factor is going to dominate in the medium-term future, because the portability vs usability tradeoff just doesn't encourage giving up your keyboard. That doesn't necessarily mean that the laptops of the future will have a full-featured OS rather than a locked-down iOS-style OS. I mean, I'm sure yours will, and mine will, but will your mother's?
    - glassx 15y ago
      Oh, agreed. And the newer ultrabooks make the portability vs usability tradeoff much much smaller. And maybe open/closed OSs will eventually converge. Look at Lion and Windows 8... I just hope they remain open!!!
- jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
  People don't stop buying the old stuff just because there's new stuff. See also: horses, bicycles, cars.
  - mcantelon 15y ago
    Yeah, which is why the "post-PC" terminology has a propaganda tone. It's not going to be "post-PC": more like "pop computing" or "computing lite".

r0s 15y ago

I consider all laptops non-pc embedded systems. It's purely an arbitrary definition; but to me, PC means open, standard hardware.