With the proliferation of technology these days, it’s hard not to get caught up in the hype behind all the new stuff (except for 3D TV…push the snooze button please). An article I read recently talked about how the PC era as we know it today is gone. Because of all the new tech, mobility and faster wireless speeds, it’s really hard not to jump on the “PC’s are dead” bandwagon. I say wait – not so fast.
Mobile is just a different way to surf the ‘net.
I don’t watch TV on my phone. I don’t randomly surf around on websites with my phone. If I do check the web on it, I already know what I’m looking for. I do different things depending on what device I’m using. I’ll admit I do have a bias – my eye sight is terrible. Staring at webpages even while zooming in and zooming out is a tedious chore. Maybe I’m “old fashioned” but I prefer the middle mouse button scroll (sorry MAC users) and something larger than a 7″ display. To get to my point, it’s going to be real hard to take my PC away. I like to play games and I love surfing the internet. These things are easier to do on a PC because of better controls, larger screen, and an actual keyboard.
2020
I recently attended a Verizon workshop down in DC. In one of their presentations they threw up a statistic that gave me heartburn.
“Mobile phone to be main web tool in 2020.”
Shoot I hope not. After the presentation I was talking to a gentlemen from Verizon about this:
“Mobile phones cannot render pages like a regular PC does so what does that mean for the web by 2020?”, I asked.
“We’ll have to bring the web down to mobile phones.”, was his reply.
I thought my head was going to explode. Dumb down the internet? Didn’t AOL already try to do that? By 2020 people might be using their phone to get on the internet more but they will still use different technology to do different things. I might be riding in my flying car by then but we’ll still need a PC. Look, I’ll be the first to admit, it’s time to do away with our boxes of flickering, flashing lights and dust bunnies. PC’s will be forced to innovate. TV’s come with ethernet and apps now. Maybe they’ll become a new PC. iPad’s certainly help close the gap… maybe we’ll all transition to that.
PC’s are evolving – today’s definition will not be the same 10 years from now.
In my opinion there are some things we need to see happen in order to bridge the gap between PC antiquation and mobile frustration (My 2 big words of the day):
- One web browsing experience
- You want mobile to win? The iPad instead? First get me a keyboard interface that works!
- PC’s need the cool interface like our phones have.
The internet cannot and SHOULD NOT be dumbed down. If you’re a Marketer or Tech person you don’t want to have to manage the different experiences on the web. How does it render in Safari or Chrome or IE or Firefox or my ANDROID or … aaahhh… stop the insanity please. HTML 5 might take us there… but it isn’t out officially yet. Even with HTML 5 things across each browser still won’t render correctly. If we want to unite the different techs we need to speak the same language. Am I talking about a Technology Utopia? Unfortunately yes… I mean Blackberry can’t get their USB cables to work across all their phones. But I can sure dream can’t I?
Auto correct tries real hard but it sucks. Typing on my DROID Incredible can be a real pita. Don’t start bragging Mr. and Mrs. iPhones – you know you cuss about it too.
I’d zoom in and zoom out all day long…oh yeah.
Will there be one device that is the kill all? Probably not. For now you have to remember that Mobile fits a niche. If you’re marketing a product you must consider mobile users differently then you would regular browser people. Mobile versions of a site are good for your phone but they stink for everything else and don’t offer up all the content you’d like your prospects or customers to see.
Over the next 5 years you’ll see a significant shift in PC’s. They will need to evolve. Microsoft’s announcement about Windows 8 might be the beginning of this major transformation. What will computing look like 10 years from now? I can’t wait to find out.
