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The Myth of the ‘Post-PC Era’: Why tablets and smartphones will never replace...

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superboyac:
The way I look at anything like this is similar to some of the thoughts above...does the innovation foster and encourage creativity and personal innovation?  it has nothing to do with the device...whether it's a computer or a tablet or a smartphone.  It's what can you do with it?  The pc is a device that allows a customer to build it from scratch, independant of any company.  Most people don't but the opportunity is there.  Then, you can use whatever OS you choose, whatever software, even design your own software, design your own hardware...this is why the pc changed the world.
The smartphone currently doesn't offer any of this.  The benefit of today's smartphones is that it makes computing easier for people who are NOT trying to innovate or be creative.  Basically, it makes computers easier for people who don't like computers.  It's what the microwave did for people who don't want to cook.  Do the microwave people argue with commercial quality oven/stove/grill manufacturers about which is better?  No, it's a silly argument.  Same with a smartphone.  it's not a computer, it's nothing like it in the true sense.

All these people using smartphones primarily are people who never truly cared about what the possibilities of the pc was.

Now, the actual smartphone idea has a lot of potential, but the stupid ass politicians and corporations have to be willing to help out the masses on this one.  If we can build our own smartphones, then it will become a revolution like the pc 30 years ago.  raspberry pi is the beginning.  and ultimately, the world is soooooo very close to realizing this.  All it would take is the ability for users to buy a cellular chip at fry's the way we buy hard drives and motherboards and stuff.

it's just that damn cellular chip and the ability for anyone to connect to an existing cell network.  Once this happens the world will change.  That's what I'm waiting for.  One day, i'll be able to go down to the store, buy a cell chip, call AT&T and activate it, and use it however I like.

TaoPhoenix:
It's what the microwave did for people who don't want to cook.  Do the microwave people argue with commercial quality oven/stove/grill manufacturers about which is better?  No, it's a silly argument.  Same with a smartphone.  It's not a computer, it's nothing like it in the true sense.
-superboyac (December 18, 2012, 04:17 PM)
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Fun comparison. I am of the set of folks who desperately hate to cook and that's on good days!  :o   
So I microwave absolutely everything (that is sensible, cold sandwiches are good too.)

On the comp side, I'm absolutely a software guy. I'd rate myself easily an intermediate Windows user. Not a newbie, not an expert, but I can do my share of things. I had a guy build my current comp for me, and as far as I am concerned it's a Black Box. (And it is Black! And Boxy!)

But philosophically as a desktop comp, with a little care on virus prevention, I can download anything I want and run it and save out my output files in any of 7 formats. What I really hate is the merge of the smartphone and tablet form factors with an OS that purposely hides the data within the apps themselves. 
>:( 

I'll sidestep the phone side for now, and talk about more of the tablet side. To me they're just overgrown mini-laptops, and there's no reason with SSD/other storage a laptop couldn't look like that. Apple WAS brilliant, and their business position proves it. However, somewhere moving from "Revenge of the Nerds" to "Oh look I can use a tablet to go onto Facebook", Apple found ways to make for subtle advantages of their own. It's the Lockdown Wars 2.0 .

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