The ‘Post-PC’ Era Is Here — But Don’t Junk Your PC Just Yet

Has the much-discussed "post-PC era" at last begun? The terminus has been tossed roughly for years past industry executives and pundits alike. Its most Recent high-profile use came during Steve Jobs' iPad 2 unveiling in March, when the Apple CEO/Guru called the iPhone, iPod, and iPad "post-PC devices" that needed to be more intuitive and easier to consumption than conventional desktops or laptops.

Well, add Forrester Research to the list of industry watchers who believe the Emily Price Post-PC geological era has begun. In a new report released Tues, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps says that computing devices–you said it we interact with them–are currently undergoing a spectacular shift to:

· Ubiquitous computing: Mobile devices with sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and geolocators are freeing us from the stationary limitations of desktop PCs.

· "Casual" computing: Split second-connected/always-on smartphones and tablets remove the formal kick up/closing process of the desktop.

· A more intimate experience: Tablets and smartphones are kept accurate to your body, whereas using a laptop computer or desktop is "arms-length natural process," writes Epps in a web log post. This means that consumers are using computing devices in confidant places, including the sleeping room. Sounds like a boon to couples' therapists to Maine.

· Physical interaction with devices: Touchscreens, voice input, motion-sensing devices such equally Microsoft Kinect, and cameras with automatic face recognition allow your "dead body and spokesperson" to control the machine. By comparison, the desktop's sneak out/keyboard interface is more abstract and inferior personal.

What's IT all hateful? For certain, the mobility and ubiquity of today's technical school devices is dynamical the way interact with our digital assistants. Merely the laptop and desktop aren't going inaccurate anytime soon.

"Thus what does 'post-PC' mean, anyway? It doesn't mean that the PC is dead," Epps writes. As a matter of fact, Forrester forecasts that U.S. consumer laptop sales will maturate at a compound one-year growth rate of 8 pct 'tween 2020 and 2020, and desktop gross revenue will decline only slightly.

And while 82 million American consumers will own a pad of paper in 2020, more than 140 million will own a laptop, Forrester predicts.

"In the place-Personal computer ERA, the 'PC' is alive and healthy, but information technology morphs to support computing experiences that are progressively ubiquitous, casual, intimate, and physical," says Epps.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .