Remember the itty-bitty screens on the early home computers? The
small screens were a pain; fortunately, thanks to advances in
computer technology, the screens got larger pretty fast. In my first
temp job in the Washington area, I worked on one of the original
Macs. It was better than a Commodore or my own Kaypro, largely
because of the O.S. and the user interface, but the tiny screen made
it decidedly awkward to use.
At the present day, I just don't see itty-bitty machines with itty-
bitty screens taking the place of laptops or desktops for serious
work, either in the home or the office. Want to type a letter or a
report on your iPad? How about several letters, a report, an RFP, an
order for office supplies, an outline for a speech, etc., that you
might work on in one day in an office job? How about your kid's
physics homework, a book report, a history paper, a paper for English
class? There aren't many jobs where you don't have to use computers
in one way or another, and I just don't see the average middle school
or high school student getting by without a real computer, either.
The small screens and awkward keyboards on the smaller devices mean
that they can't compete with regular computers for lots of important
everyday functions.
Sure, kids like smartphones, and those iPads are just so cute; but
they're just not convenient to work on. And consider this: a lot of
us don't have unlimited funds any more--in fact some of us are rather
short on funds, thanks to the Great Recession. This means we have to
choose carefully which computer-type devices we buy and maintain.
Most of us HAVE to have a computer of some kind, unless we actually
WANT to wait in line at the public library when we need to use one.
But we DON'T have to have an iPad or a smart phone. They're nice, of
course, but not yet required; there's nothing they can do that we
MUST do, that isn't already covered by something else.
Sure, it would be convenient to walk through Georgetown, looking on
your iPhone for the nearest Italian restaurant (or Japanese, or
Ethiopian, or whatever), and you'd look really cool doing it. But
lots of us just can't afford iPhones--or Georgetown restaurants, either.
--Constance Warner
On Jun 30, 2010, at 12:38 AM, phartz...@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 11:04 PM, Chris Dunford <seed...@gmail.com>
wrote:
The Mac as we know it-a full featured personal computer-is slowly
going away, to be replaced by ever more mobile and increasingly
capable devices.
This might very well happen for a lot of casual uses, so I don't
disagree with the notion that iPad could cannibalize some portion
of Mac sales. But these various little things aren't going to replace
real computers for doing real work any time soon. It's not so much
the capabilities as the physical interface. I am NOT going to
spend all day every day squinting at a tiny screen and typing on a
tiny
fake keyboard. I can't see many office workers wanting to work
that way, either.
I agree that a lot of computer work needs a full blown machine.
However, it could well be that Macs will eventually be mostly
relegated to professional level work environments and that such things
as the iMac and the larger MacBook portables will slowly disappear
from home and casual usage settings. Mac Pro machines, the quad and
eight core computers could continue, but Apple's "consumer" computers
may well be discontinued or become morphed into iOS based devices with
portability in mind. Simple computers running mostly simple
applications for users who just want to keep it simple. Apple could
become primarily the purveyor of computing devices for the masses who
mostly just want to do Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, some browsing,
looking at photos and videos and making a lot of phone calls.
As to tiny or small screens, that appears to me to be no barrier at
all to the younger computer users of today. These folks appear to
relish watching movies or viewing photos on 2 inch screens or browsing
the internet with cell phones or typing on keyboards that have keys
the size of a Tic-Tac.
Steve
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