[opendtv] Post PC world
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2011 15:59:04 -0600
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> There's a ton of baggage associated with the PC era. And many of the
> applications that require a desktop PC or a workstation level laptop
> cannot be considered "personal." Clearly there will always be products
> that leverage "computers" to deliver task specific solutions like editing
> a Hollywood movie or rendering the next Pixar blockbuster.
I keep thinking that what most people really want is a new version of the old
VT100 dumb terminal. In essence, functionally, that's what the tablets replace.
(I said "functionally.") They are thin clients, which means that they are
intended primarily to be access devices to what the hype-minded now call "the
cloud." The client device has a browser, IP stack, monitor, enough memory to
run the applications locally, and some non-volatile storage. All the heavy
lifting is done elsewhere.
Ultimately, from a user's standpoint, that's not a bad place to go. For
example, why buy and install your own Turbotax if you can pay a little and get
the online version? You could in principle do the same thing with the entire
Office suite. Except for some reason, that never quite caught on. Microsoft
tried many years to make that happen. Aside from the ubiquitous web-based
e-mail systems, office applications still seem to be installed in individual
machines. (Maybe Microsoft is still trying, with its online version of Office
2010?)
Perhaps much of the "personal" interface will be through these thin clients in
the future. The pendulum swings back to giving all the control to the guys in
the white coats. Like in the 1960s.
The MVPD culture would certainly reinforce such a model.
Bert
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