Here’s a sure sign of accelerating technology: the phasing out of old tech to make way for the new. How long will desktop PCs and Macs, and even laptop computers last as cell phones with all the bells and whistles and tabs, such as the iPad take over more and more of the Internet’s infosphere?
IBM’s CTO has his own thoughts on the near-term future of telecommunications and computing:
IBM CTO Mark Dean of the company’s Middle East and Africa division, one of a dozen IBM engineers who designed that first machine unveiled Aug. 12, 1981, says PCs are “going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.”
IBM, of course, sold its PC division to Lenovo in 2005. Dean, in a blog post, writes that “I, personally, have moved beyond the PC as well. My primary computer now is a tablet. When I helped design the PC, I didn’t think I’d live long enough to witness its decline. But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they’re no longer at the leading edge of computing.”
