According to one of the engineers involved in designing of first ever model of PC, PC is only 30 years old still it is going the way of typewriter and vinyl record. It was August 12 1981 that personal computer IBM 5150 made its debut at a press conference at Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York. Mark Dean, member of the team that built the first machine and now the CTO for IBM Middle East and Africa said that PC is now on the way out. It is no more the way it used to be when it was invented. Time has changed and so do the drift of people. He also said in a blog post that when designing the PC, he could not think he won’t survive long enough to see its decline. PCs are although much used devices however they are on the leading of computing anymore, he added.
They are going much in a way vacuum tube, type writer, incandescent light bulbs and CRT had. Dean admitted that
he himself has left PC behind and now tablet is his primary computer. There are many form factors which are responsible for the decline of PCs. These include classic desktops being replaced by laptops, game consoles, net books, tablets and Smartphone which are giving revolutionary ways to access computing power. However Dean says, these
devices have not replaced PCs but it is because of the center of computing and newer ideas regarding the role which computing can play in progress. This clearly exemplifies that it is not the innovation on devices which lasts but in the social spaces i.e. where ideas and people meet.
Infact the present scenario of technological advances and position of PCs signifies the same. This is where computing can have greatest impact on people, society and economy. IBM which sold its Pc division to Lenovo in 2005 talks about post-PC era, everyone is not convinced: Microsoft said that 400m PCs will be sold this year but perhaps prefers to hold a talk about PC-plus era. The present condition of PCs is definitely not the one which anyone would have expected in 1980s and 1990s. The technology is advancing which has made PCs which once used to be a most-liked device, way out in this competitive world of technology. But the question arises, is this over for the PC? Is this really an end to the PC?