Not trying to start a war, or anything else like that. I'm simply wondering why some people seem to think we will all be using tablets, instead of desktop/laptop PCs within a few years? Am I the only person who refuses to try and do anything on a screen smaller than 24 inches (61cm)? I guess I just don't see how it would be possible to shove all that computing power into something as small as a cell phone, and still be able to have peripherals and a full size monitor at a high resolution ... wireless, somehow I'd imagine? Maybe I'm just getting old, but I won't give up my custom built PCs and huge monitors any time soon, regardless of what the current trend is. What's your thoughts?
I don't think desktops and such will ever truly die out. You really can't beat a full sized physical, mechanical keyboard for typing along with a nice large screen (my current is 23.6", still on the small side). Plus, unless there's some huge breakthrough in terms of the amount of heat components produce, there will always be reason for desktops in servers and such due to the better ability to disperse heat, and therefore have better hardware.
That's kinda what I was thinking. There are some things that are just physical limitations that I just can't see being overcome with current technologies. There is only so much heat that an aluminum/copper/whatever heatsink can dissipate. Not to mention, the tighter you pack things, the hotter they get. My cell phone already gets hot just from playing a quick game of angry birds, I can't imagine stuffing something as powerful as a haswell chip in your phone. Sure, they will be a different kind of architecture, etc but you can only switch a transistor on and off so fast without causing heat (caused by the brief short between the processor VDD and VSS). I just can't see how we will get around such an old physical property of current + resistance = heat. Millivolt CPUs, maybe? :)
I dont think tablets will ever replace my desktop but a tablet did replace my phone. At least in the way i use one.
The desk is still the most productive place. Also People will always need more horse power for content creation. Also mobile will only take over when one can create software for the mobile devices on those devices.
~IMO~
Usage.
This is what it comes down to. What are the masses doing on their devices? Writing papers for school, socializing, watching youtube, and playing games.
Why would you want a heavy big computer tower just to do those things when something that fits in your hand can do that.
So where does that leave desktops as we know it?
For the people with the needs for them. People who want/need a big screen do their work whatever it may be. Content creators and PC gamers who need the horsepower that can not be matched by a tablet. Or just people who genuinely like the feel of a full sized keyboard and computer.
I dislike touch screens for typing. My phone is good for ringing people and playing silly games, but I don't think the PC will ever die.
I also think tablets are hopeless for typing. I teach and it is a combination of comical and sad to watch my students attempt to type notes (more or less anything substantial) on their tablets.
Personally, I just don't get tablets. My wife was given an iPad a few years ago and it has just sat and gathered dust in our house - neither of us can think of a use for it. It isn't that we are both power-users either. I have pretty standard reasons for not using tablets - I prefer to read on a bigger screen, I need hefty processing power, I spend hours and hours a day writing - but my wife is just a normal user. She checks FB and watches YT etc. Even she finds these easier on a regular laptop.
Tablets are useful as a second screen.When I am playing a game or watching a movie full screen and want to look up info or communicate with some one. It also useful when you want a larger screen than a phone for something.
Tablets are just a transition phase when phone can fully be used as a desktop (wither docked or wireless) tablets will die. Also laptops will be in trouble. But the Tower will still remain since local high power computing is still very important.
In the future, Maybe once the issues of latency have been solve or highly mitigated the cloud could take over.
P.S. The cloud is not new at all, it is the oldest form of computing, think mainframe and terminal.
As long as businesses and productivity work (video editing, web designing, music production, etc.) exists, so will the desktop PC
Personally the only reason I would like a tablet is for media consumption. A dedicated device for interacting with my Chromecast or controlling my DVR and HTPC or looking up TV show info on my couch.
Never would I consider replacing my PC or my laptop with a giant phone err tablet.
lol NOPE!
I see the utility of the cloud, but until the internet infrastructure is bettered (I'm in Australia and under the current government it won't happen) there will be serious limitations to its practicality.
Just recently I attended a seminar by a company that makes equipment for sequencing genomes and they were talking about how the data could be transported to the cloud for easier inter-lab access - this caused bemused chortles from all of the bioinformaticians in the audience. The issue here is that we are talking about extremely large quantities of data. If one wanted to send such data to another lab it would be faster to put it on a HDD and post it than to try to upload it to cloud storage.
I totally agree with you we have a long way before local computing is no longer needed.
The People who say the desktop will go extinct soon are the same peple who say the pen and paper will go extinct in the near future.
i take notes on my tablet, havent used a pen and paper on anything more than exams.
I'm looking at my tablet here, that I haven't touched yet this year... It's a 7" because I wanted it to be mobile (easy on public transport) but haven't been going far where I could've used it this year yet. If it was 10" I might use it a bit at home for browsing, but on 7" with a pc just a few meters away, not really worth it.
Other than that, Android games are so disappointing I can't even play any games on it :<
This is the other thing for me - tablet games are just so 'lite' compared to the kind of content I am interested in (a full story with adequate levels of immersion).
This will only happen if the tablet hybrids lift their game to have decent amounts of computational power. In my case I am a researcher who needs a machine that is both powerful and easily portable (flashes of inspiration often come at conferences for example, where it is nice to have one's primary workhorse on tap).
I doub't we'll be using tablets mainstream till AMD comes out with a 8nm finfet apu with DDR5/GDDR7 ram that runs a full OS and a nanotube battery. so not till 2020 at the earliest is my guess.
the desktop won't go away but it will use the piston steambox formfactor and a more economic 120watts instead of the 400+watts we use today.
the current intel atom clovertrail+ Z series has about the same power as a entry level celeron E. which can play dreamcast class games.so by 2020 we should be able to play xbox 360 class games.
even with all that it will be irreverent because big corporations are trying to use the "cloud" for everything. which I don't like since if you lost your job or something and couldn't pay for the "cloud" service you could lose everything.
Not until we get 1TB on the size of an SD card with the performance of SSDs.