IHS iSuppli: PCs are Old School, Internet Enabled Devices New School

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Neufeldt2002

August 10, 2011 at 11:25am

"In the future, consumers will be more likely to access the Internet through their televisions than via their PCs"

This may be true if you are single and living on your own. In any house with multiple people this would never happen unless you are watching a show through Netflix. There are 5 people in my house, and we use multiple computers along with the TV for entertainment because we can seldom agree on what to watch or do. I guess you could have multiple TV's, and many do, but I won't count the PC out yet.

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vig1lant3

August 10, 2011 at 10:32am

Do any of these internet connected devices have a 27" HD LED? 

Can they encode a DVD in 10 minutes? 

Can any of them run the newest games, while streaming sports on ESPN3, while downloading *cough* uhhh... the latest Linux distro, while transcoding video, while running monitors for temps, core usage, GPU usage, and core speed simultaneously with plenty of clock cycles to spare?

Nope.

Guess what can?

My "Maximum" PC. 

I don't see "internet connected devices" ever replacing the PC in the hearts of true power users.  There are always going to be enthusiasts like myself, (and everyone else who frequents this site and subscribes to the rag) who are fascinated by performance, pushing the envelope with a max OC, or benchmark scores.  We're the ones who will always get excited to install the newest CPU, drool over the raw frame rendering power of a top of the line video card, or tear into any parcel from newegg like it's a present on X-mas morning.

We are Legion...we are MAX-PC-nonymous!  ...or something else...but you get the idea ;)

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PCLinuxguy

August 10, 2011 at 12:12pm

I agree. Tablets and all the other internet linked devices might be 'cool' for the 2-15 year olds, but for those of us out there that actually do more with a computer than just facecrap and tweet will always want, need, and have a Real Computer in their home. Thus real computers will never die, they will simply evolve with the latest and greatest ways of doing what they do best. Even gaming, consoles can only do so much in regards of graphics and pure 3D joy that a computer can do easily 100 times better with even a low end spec sheet.

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Paul_Lilly

August 10, 2011 at 10:45am

We're not down with the veiled piracy reference (we actually do download freebie Linux distros and purchase software using hard earned Skrilla), but otherwise, preach on vig1lant3!

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vig1lant3

August 10, 2011 at 4:52pm

:)  I can't take credit for that veiled piracy reference.  I'm pretty sure I read it in the magazine a couple of months back.  I would have quoted, but I can't recall what article or author. 

I do also pay for software.  I'm of the opinion that the Steam distribution model is the best thing to happen to PC gaming since Bard's Tale 3.  Heh, I loved that game. :p

As far as the evolution of computers that @PCLinuxguy (very discreet name) mentioned, I think it's a good point to bring up. 

I've been toying with computers since the Apple II, IIe, and Atari...uh...5800 I think it was?  Anyway it was awhile ago, and while there is still plenty of computing goodness that pre-dates me, to a degree I've evolved along with the PC.  I remember sitting at an AppleIIGS (still a "personal" computer) with a barely color, probably 13" RGB monitor, a 2400 baud Zoom-Telephonics black box modem discovering bulletin boards for the first time, and playing Bird vs. Jordan (or vise-versa).  Now I'm sitting at an H50 cooled, mini-itx rig (Silverstone Sugo SG05BB <--- love this case), pushing the baddest of the Sandy Bridge CPU's, in front of 27" and 22" HD LED's, performing all of the tasks I previously mentioned, and on this site posting too.  The evolution of not only hardware, but how we use it as well, is a big reason PC computing will never be obsolete. 

Prices have evolved too, and that's important.  Not sure where the RAM market is headed, but most  prices on other hardware seems stable enough.  When $500 gets you a rig (excluding monitor and home built of course) that is capable of performing not only every task that the average user should need, but moderate gaming also, your platform should remain relevant.  It will do so especially if that excluded monitor that you already had is 24" or larger. :)

BTW that AppleIIGS that I mentioned was $1500 with the monitor and base memory of 256K.  I think it was around $1700 with a RAM upgrade to 640k so I could play War in Middle Earth, and it hummed along at a whopping 2.8Mhz.  Those that discount or doubt the staying power of the PC need to remember where we came from, and realize how quickly we've arrived at where we are.  While Moore's Law may not hold true anymore from a purely "transistor count" point of view (and I don't think his prediction was meant to endure into the 21st century), there are still significant innovations in CPU core architecture (or step/revision), die size, or increases in clock speed of existing parts, about every 6 months.

Anyway, I've said enough in this post to make me sound old...I'm not though!  So at least one PC will be around for quite a while yet.

 

 

 

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bling581

August 10, 2011 at 10:02am

I find it amusing how they can throw all these different devices into a general category and compare that against PC's. It's true that a lot of devices are connected to the internet, but that has nothing to do with what's the easiest to use and most convenient. I have several devices that can connect and browse the web, but 98% of the time I still use my PC because it's superior. Browsing the web on a smart phone or tablet works, but it's not as easy to type or navigate. I would expect that a majority of people that have other devices still use their PC/Mac to do their majority of internet browsing.

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LatiosXT

August 10, 2011 at 8:01am

Internet enabled devices just allow internet enabled content that wasn't particularly meant for PCs to be on their intended devices. HDTVs with internet for instance, could access Netflix, Hulu, etc. I'd rather watch a TV show or movie on, you know, a TV.

An MP3 player that can get me Pandora or access to my Amazon Cloud Player? That's great.

Long story short, it just moves services that were originally born on the PC (which... by the way seems to be the birthplace for all these dangfabled technologies) onto devices that seem more appropriate. Which is fine.

But it doesn't mean the PC isn't going to go away. Could you type up your 30 page thesis and print it out on an iPad only? Or would you want to?

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MeanSquare

August 10, 2011 at 5:52am

I've been watching this sort of thing from back when it was thin- vs thick-client computing.  Ultimately, each generation finds uses for both types.  When the pipeline becomes both fast enough and always-available enough to play server-based games on, that may be the beginning of the end, but I'm not even sure that that will do in local computing.

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