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Are Desktop PCs And Laptops Becoming Obsolete?

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Are desktop PCs and laptops being rendered obsolete? originally appeared on Quora: the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Jae Alexis Lee on Quora:

The desktop PC (and to a lesser extent the laptop PC) were never things that we needed to have in the number we had them in the early 2000s. They’re poor tools for what people needed, but for a time, they were the only tools we had.

Desktop computers are beyond inconvenient. You can’t take them with you easily, they tie you not just to a specific building but a specific room in that building just to be able to use them. That’s less than ideal for lots of people.

What the desktop PC did for us, however, was give people the means to access the internet. In the days when internet use was growing rapidly, more and more people were finding a need to be able to interact with the internet. To do that, you needed a desktop PC, so people got one. As our needs for internet access grew, we moved from the “family computer” to the idea that each person had their own computer, but they were still mostly desktops because laptops were bulky/heavy things with small screens that were mainly made for professionals who needed to be mobile.

People, however, didn’t need a desktop PC. They just needed a way to interact with the internet.

With the introduction of smartphones and tablets, we now have alternative devices for accessing all of the wonderful internet things we know and love. The people who never needed a PC for anything but internet access, now they don’t need desktop PCs anymore.

There are, however, a host of tasks that desktop PCs have always been good at and are still very good at. 3D modeling and large amounts of VFX work are done on desktop PCs (and laptops more recently). Video editing, software development, heaps and gobs of records management. All sorts of things we used desktop PCs for before widespread internet use and that we continue to use desktop PCs for.

I think when people talk about the “death of the PC” it’s because they thought of the mid 2000s as normal. The 2000s weren’t normal; it was a bubble where a new need could only be filled with a single device. Now, we have other ways to address that need. The bubble has passed. The percentage of people using/needing a desktop (or laptop) PC has probably grown since pre-bubble days, but the falloff of people moving away from desktops and laptops is starting to level out as we get back to where things were before.

I don’t see desktops and laptops becoming defunct any time soon. But for some things that we once could only do from a desktop or laptop, we now have alternatives that integrate better with people’s lives.

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