Future of Personal Computer

With the evolution of smart phones and tablets, the survival of Personal Computer could be under threat. Let us examine, if there is a possible thing that PC alone can do.

Thick Client Applications: We have started seeing the increasing number of applications moving to the cloud and one just need a browser and may be an appropriate pug-in to run a cloud application. Even heavy weight applications like ERP suites and Business Intelligence Suites are now being offered over the cloud. In few years from now, I don't think there will be any compelling need to use a thick client application.

User Convenience:  Yes, a bigger monitor and a regular keyboard with a mouse will really be convenient to work on a PC. But do we need a PC just to have a bigger display and the key board? Not really, some of today's smart phones are dockable on to a device, which facilitates connecting to a bigger display and keyboard.

Higher Computing Power: When the applications are served out of Cloud, much of the processing happens elsewhere on some server(s) located over the cloud, and not much power is required on the client device. That is not the end, in few years from now, the smart phones / tablets will equally sport a high end processor with even multiple cores.

Extreme Gaming: Most of the popular games today are online games. Gamers also prefer online games which connects buddies from all over the globe to join and play together. More so, because the gaming service providers gain more in the form of Ad revenues in case of online games than Thick client games. Above all, there are special purpose gaming consoles in the market for extreme gaming.

Enterprise Computing: While it could be ideal to go with enterprise owned secured and locked down personal computers to access and process enterprise information, but that does not mean that they have to be PCs. Even now most enterprises are encouraging their employees to work from home on a Laptop, there by saving so much of energy costs at the physical location and at the same time commuting time for the employee. The evolving tablets could easily replace the Laptops.

Research firm Gartner slashed its growth forecast for the global PC market this year to 3.8 percent from 9.3 percent citing boom in media tablets.

You name one thing, we can think of how tomorrow's personal gadgets could address that. Would like to here from you on this trend.

Tap to Click feature of Touch pad on Laptops

Long time ago, when I was seriously preparing a process document on my Laptop and I kept typing in the text as it was flowing from my mind, not looking at the screen. When I looked up to see how it is coming up, surprised that the sentences were scrambled here and there. Then I started observing as to what is happening while typing in and found that the typing position suddenly changes to a an unexpected location, and your key strokes produce characters at an unwanted location! For a while I thought this could be a virus or malware problem or may be a problem with Microsoft Word.

But it did not took much time for me to figure out that this is the 'tap to click' feature of the touch pad. As you keep typing in, your thumb or such other finger taps on the touch pad surface and as a result, the typing position shifts to the position where the mouse cursor was at that time. From then on I have it included in my Laptop build document to have the tap feature disabled. May be this feature is useful for some, but for me it is a hindrance. Similar issues with the pointing stick, which is positioned amidst the keys and if you have it enabled, the chances of you taping on it is even more. Share your experiences with this feature.