
Google Europe boss John Herlihy
told an audience at the Digital Landscapes conference this week that desktop computers would be irrelevant in three years. His statement falls right in line with comments made by CEO Eric Schmidt, reinforcing the company’s focus on mobile computing and the cloud.
“In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs,” said Herlihy. Google believes that’s where the rest of the world is headed, which is why we see so much focus on Android and even Chrome OS. The company believes that cloud support will enable smaller devices to handle all the computing we’ll need.
What he’s really talking about is entertainment devices. It’s not like desktops are going to disappear, you’ll just be highly unlikely to find one in someone’s home that’s been manufactured in the last three to five. Hell, that’s unlikely now. My parents just had their desktop die and being that they haven’t asked me about getting another one, I’d assume they won’t.
From desktops we’ll go to laptops. Yes, even your beloved lappy will be going the way of the Dodo at some point, making room for smaller, entertainment centric devices like the iPad.
Photo from fOTOGLIF