Post-PC??? BS!!

Steve Jobs said some months ago that we were in the beginning of the Post-PC era. And of course, since Steve Jobs said it, the messiah of technology, it has been repeated over and over again by one Apple loving pundit after another. Well, it's all BS.

Steve Jobs is trying to sell iPads. He believes we are in the Post-PC era, because he wants us to believe it, and buy an iPad. The problem is that despite the millions of iPads sold, the device is still defined by what it doesn't do more than what is does do. The things it does, it does very well, and for many people that is enough, but there are so many things that it doesn't do.

And don't go thinking that Android on Tablets will solve the problems, because it won't. It has virtually all of the problems of the iPad, except that you can install the programs you want instead of the ones Apples thinks you should have.

So, why are you going to keep your PC for a while longer, despite the words of the Prophet Jobs?

1. Keyboards
   
   Yep, we still need to type more than 140 characters at a time...at least occasionally. Now, yes, you can dock your iPad or use a keyboard with your Android Tablet, but if you have to do that to be productive, then what is the point of a tablet?
   
2. Monitors
   
   I don't know about you, but I am not giving up the 21" monitor on my desktop, or the 15" LCD on my portable for a 9.7" LCD. At least not for everything. That dinky LCD makes the tablet more portable, but when I sit down at home, I want size. Maybe I'm alone in that, but I don't think so. And yes, you can hook up a monitor to some of the tablet docks, but is that really the answer with the present state of tablets?
   
   When one of these tablet docks will put my tablet directly beside my monitor so that I can use them together as a dual monitor set up, then we might have something. But, that also starts to sound a lot more like a PC.
   
3. Work
   
   I don't know about your employer, but mine just bought new PCs and knowing the way my state agency goes, it will be years before we get to replace them, and I just have a hard time believing that they will be replaced with tablets...especially ones that don't have keyboards unless docked.
   
   Employers don't want the majority of their employees running around with portables. At Dell you had to make a special case to get a portable, and basically prove that you would be using it on the move...often. Employers want their peons right where they can find them, and that means chained to their desks by means of their PCs.
   

To me, these three reasons are telling enough to show that the PC will be around for at least another 10 years. Will tablets keep selling? Undoubtedly. The small form factor will allow us to carry them, and the ease of use will continue to attract those who don't have the smarts or inclination to master the PC.

Windows 8 is showing the way. The PC, both Windows and Mac, must simplify, but Windows is trying to bridge the gap, not between tablets and PCs as some suggest, but between the simple interface of the smartphone/tablet, and the power of a PC. I could have added a fourth to the list above, content creation. Drawing, Photoshoping, writing, editing video, these and much more may be possible on the next generation of tablets (more likely two or three), but the small screen, and the need to use your finger are going to hinder precise tasks, and the lack of a keyboard already makes writing impossible. I could never have written this essay on a tablet.

So, let's get over this idea that the PC is on its way out. You and I both will be using PCs in one form or another for years to come. We may spent less time working at a desktop. We may replace our portables, or use them less often, but the PC will still be there.

And, I have not even touched on the argument that tablets are still PCs and still part of the same ecosystem, and therefore a tablet dominated world is still just a minor variation on the PC era.