Most people's main computer won't be a computer, it'll be a games console and a Tivo-niche filler (maybe the same thing, it's Sony vs Microsoft vs Apple vs the cable and satellite companies, and a pox on all their houses) paired with a smartphone.
Why do most people need a computer? I can't remember the last time I had to send a personal letter - all my bills are electronic and if someone really needs my signature they send a form. And my entire extended family does email.
Most people's main computer won't be a computer, it'll be a games console and a Tivo-niche filler
How long before that's just running on the TV, with the TV acting as a thin client?
For what most people do, why doesn't a HD TV, a smartphone, and a bluetooth keyboard suffice hardware-wise? Just put the PC in the TV and make it capable of nice 3D graphics.
The idea of computer-as-integration-point is really a Western one. In Japan you have your smartphone, your console, your camera, etc, and they all overlap more than Western counterparts on what would otherwise be done by a PC.
That's why Sony make great hardware but lousy PC software. Their core market in Japan doesn't need to plug their phones into their PCs to manage their music, they do it all on the device...
In Japan you have your smartphone, your console, your camera, etc, and they all overlap more than Western counterparts on what would otherwise be done by a PC.
So, for reasons of user-habit, there's no single point of integration in Japan? I'd like to be able to use my smartphone to tell my TV-attached device to record show X or download its bittorrent, and have it all just work.
Just that the assumptions are different. Actually, the West is becoming more and more like Japan in this regard. In the past people started with a computer and built out from there. Now I know people with a smartphone and a games console and a Sky+ box and no actual "computer".
Why do most people need a computer? I can't remember the last time I had to send a personal letter - all my bills are electronic and if someone really needs my signature they send a form. And my entire extended family does email.