End of the desktop PC?

July 18, 2010, 9:31 am

Say goodbye to your commodore 64, according to thie CNN Money article, the PC is dead:

Video may have killed the radio star, but the PC and a host of other seemingly outdated consumer gadgets live on in the face of many attempts to replace them.

Sales of smartphones and tablets are on the rise, pushed by companies like Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) that say the newer devices can displace computers, but PC sales also keep on booming. Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) reported last week that its second quarter was its best ever, boosted by strong PC sales. And analyst group Gartner predicts computer sales will rise 22% this year.

It’s not just PCs. Digital cameras, laptops and MP3 players have become nearly ubiquitous tools for even the Luddites among us, even though smartphones can perform many of the same tasks that their single-function brethren can.

But a confluence of events among device manufacturers and service providers suggests that the end for the desktop computer and other “has-been” devices really is on the horizon. Unconnected gadgets are finally starting to lose their luster and are beginning to be replaced by more multi-functional, connected devices.

“We’ve been talking about this for 10 years, but what’s new is that component costs have come down, the ecosystem of services has become more mature, and these devices are supporting a wider variety of content now than ever before,” said Susan Kevorkian, mobile media and entertainment program director at IDC.

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