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Will people still be buying home p.c.'s in 2020?

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SamQuint said:
For me it is storage. Unless a phone can store 3-4 Terabytes I am not going to switch to a tablet. I have way too many photos, and I sure as hell am not going to pay for masses of cloud storage space.

Also I like the fact that a big tower is something most thieves are not going to take. People lose their phones left and right. Imagine having all you data only on a phone and poof a thief steals it. Unless everything is backed up to the cloud then you will be in a world of hurt.

I also like backing stuff up to CDs and DVDs.

I will continue to get desktop PCs until there is something really compelling to replace them. Current tablets suck as a PC replacement.

But then again I am old school, I still buy CDs.
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Then get a file server that your mobile computer interfaces with. I use a 2 TB MyBookLive right now, and someday when the price comes down and ease of use goes up I'll have an off the shelf home NAS with RAID that syncs automatically to a secure server. The technology is there, it will get cheaper and filter to the home.
 
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Vdubchaos said:
Don't worry, just wait until their stuff is gone or the company goes under and they are SOL.

I don't see how people can even rely on "cloud" storage....but hey
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I don't rely on cloud storage only, never will.

But a local device that syncs to a secure offsite location via the internet, and maintains versions so that it's both disaster recovery and backup while I still I have full control over my data via a local device? You betcha.
 
Midwayman said:
Windows 8 is heading there too for all its flaws. First person to figure it all out will probably make a boatload of cash.
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I agree, there's definitely a payday in there for someone, but it will likely rely on a standards consortium. The key is interoperability. Companies like Apple, Sony, or Microsoft on their own would create walled gardens where only their hardware and software are compatible and will ultimately fail due to lack of ubiquity. For true success, the ideas here require universal standards, not proprietary interfaces. I'd put my money on Google, Intel, and other assorted manufacturers.
 
lxskllr said:
I wouldn't care to speculate that far into the future. I can visualize a phone being powerful enough to run most programs, and dropping it in a dock at home which gives a full keyboard and other peripherals. When that day comes, and I have FULL control of the device, I'll give up the desktop. Other people will too.
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you'll lose out on modular upgrades, i'm not ready to let that go yet.
 
techs said:
When a smart phone or tablet can basically run any program 92 percent of the people care about, will there still be home p.c.'s being sold in 2020?

At some point I wonder if today's pc makers will start selling tablet kits, with a tablet, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Or perhaps just a hdmi cable and keyboard and mouse?
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Phones are on the rise because they have new and exciting features like GPS, camera, and LTE which your laptop don't. But phones are getting boring too, so they're in a slump.

On top of that, your $600 phone costs as much as your computer, so a lot of people can only have one.

But people need power. Which is why gaming consoles aren't going anywhere either.
 
I gotta have a full sized KB.

Gotta.

Wish I could get one for my mobile gizmos. I know I probably could. I have one about 1/3 size that works OK via Bluetooth.
 
Still don't have my dockable phone I fully control. Still have my desktop. I did pull out a bluetooth keyboard today I bought years ago for phones. Still works, but it wasn't as useful as I thought it would be when I bought it. I doubt I have 15 minutes of real time on it since I got it almost 10 years ago.
 
lxskllr said:
Still don't have my dockable phone I fully control. Still have my desktop. I did pull out a bluetooth keyboard today I bought years ago for phones. Still works, but it wasn't as useful as I thought it would be when I bought it. I doubt I have 15 minutes of real time on it since I got it almost 10 years ago.
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This is mainly a software problem. The past few Apple SoCs are nearly on par with "desktop" CPUs, and the latest and greatest Snapdragon is close enough. Unfortunately, mobile OS's and their ecosystem are "different" enough that most people won't use them for productivity. The most common complaint about iPadOS is that it isn't unleashing the full capability of M1-based iPad Pros (current gen. is M2), to replace PCs. Instead of splitting my device usage time across a laptop, phone and iPad, it would be nice to converge these down to two (or ideally one) devices.

However, there are parts of the world that bypassed the "PC revolution" and went straight to mobile. Although PCs are no doubt business workhorses in China, consumers there never adopted home PCs to the extent we did in the U.S. Other developing countries never could afford ubiquitous PCs and went straight to low-cost Android phones instead.
 
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