iPhone and the Post-PC Era

Filed in archive Mobile Phones on August 15, 2007

Did you read that heading? What's this? The Post-PC Era? Yes, according to Steve Gillmor since the release of the iPhone everything has changed. No longer is software/online services built for the PC. What is significant now is the computing power that the iPhone represents.

Soon, according to Steve Gillmor, the primary computing device that will be standard is a device like the iPhone, it may of course be a computing device manufactured by Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Microsoft, RIM or HTC. But nevertheless it will be a device intended to run voice, music, video, web browsing, email, calendaring, social networking, bluetoothing and general computing.

This is a radical rethinking of computing that will happen now and in the next five years because for many people around the world a iPhone-like device will be their only computer with little to no money to buy two appliances.

So, according to Steve we are now living in the post-PC era. How will this be different? From what I can see, programs like Google Gears, which allows users to run web applications even when offline, these are going to become significant "peripherals" where the real computing happens out there on the web, and in my machine when not connected. This all, however, will all be seamless. I will not have to know when it is running online or offline unless I need an update of news, or something like that.

Do we think iPhones and other smart phones are ready to be my primary/sole computing device? No, I don't think we are ready for such yet. There is still a long way to go for the iPhone to be my only computing device. We are working towards smart phones becoming the only computing device. Time will tell.

Have you moved into the post-PC era? If so, what services do you use? What are the draw backs?