I don't think any argument about the PC dying is valid. Yeah, tablets are awesome, I have an ipad myself that my wife bought me last christmas, and I use it all the time, but it is in no way a replacement for my PC. The only reason tablets are outselling PC's right now is because most people have a PC and not many had tablets, and tablets have actually become useful. But tablets will reach a point like PC's when everyone has them, and then the sales will slow down. Its a new technology, just like smart phones, and I still know a lot of people who don't have smart phones, but everyone I know has a PC. Ask yourself this, why would someone go out and replace a PC if there old one works fine for them? Same thing with tablets. Once everyone has one that has the functionality that they are happy with, then they aren't gonna be out trying to buy a new one every time a new one is released. Thats an advantage PC's have, they are upgradable, so if your not happy with your PC's performance, you can upgrade it. Also, modern PC's have 100's of times more power then tablets. So any company that supplants all of there PC's with tablets are gaining an advantage in portability, but are loosing processing power and expandability.
And I don't know about everyone else, but every time I do a search on PC gaming or Modding, or anything else PC related, I just see more and more results popping up on google. It seems to me more and more people are getting into the PC. But, the economy is bad, so people don't have the money to go out and buy a $1000 dollar gaming machine. But thats where rumors and not being educated on the subject comes into play. Most people think building a gaming machine, or any PC for that matter is really expensive, but honestly, it's not. PC's and Computer components have become so powerful and inexpensive recently, that you can built a much more powerful PC than any tablet or console for the equivalent amount.
Now I'm not saying PC is the only winner here. I think online everyone is getting the message that the PC is a dying market, and tablets and consoles, or smart t.v.s are the way to go. But honestly it's not. I think the reality of the situation is that in the future the best scenario is everyone owning all of them. Every piece of technology has it's place. But I think the software needs to change. Thats why I'm waiting for windows 8, because windows 8 is basically going to be integrating everything together into one cross platform network. It's going to bring full fledged operating systems to tablets and smartphones. And thats great because thats going to allow capabilities that just are here yet. One thing I think it is going to bring to the table that isn't quite here yet is remote desktop environments, and better cloud service's. And that is going to bring PC's, tablets, consoles, and smartphones all together. And that is going to revolutionize things. Maybe i'm wrong, but I think that is going to bring the PC back into the picture. I truly believe that the PC is going to become the center of the home. Like in star trek. The PC will be the core of the computer network, and all the device's will work seamlessly "with" the PC. Need more computing power, want to play high end PC games on your tablet? Need more power for doing your video editing? By using the PC as the core of all these technologies, you will be able to add more power and functionality to all your networked device's.
There are a few technologies both software and hardware based that need improvement to make this vision a reality, but I seriously think windows 8 will bring them all to the table.
1. Remote desktop: I use remote desktop all the time, the problem with remote desktop is that most of the software you can't watch video's or play games over wi-fi or 4g. I have a program called splashtop on my ipad, iphone, and it's great, you can actually play games, but I have no way to plug a keyboard or mouse into my ipad. And it is laggy. But onlive you can actually play games, although there is a slight lag, it's no where near as bad as most remote clients are. So they need to improve the networking, and tablets need to integrate usb so you can use a keyboard, mouse, and/or controller.
2. clouds. Right now most clouds are designed around storage, but originally clouds where designed to give the networked users processing power. I'm waiting for the day when the average user can hop onto there home cloud network and steal gpu or cpu processes from there pc for there tablets for gaming or other uses.
3. Integrate All in one cables, like HDMI, display port, and usb, into one cable like intel's thunderbolt I think is going to have huge impact on home computing. I think that is an excellent idea. Now if only they could integrate all that into one wireless standard. A usb thunderbolt hdmi type standard, with wireless charging, that would be great. Get rid of the cables. Imagine being able to hook up any device to any device all over a future 5g connection, seamlessly. Thats what I am waiting for. I would love to be able to take my tablet or phone, and use a keyboard and mouse with it at work, and connect it all wirelessly to my home pc so I could play my pc games, or console games, or do photoshop or video editing on it, seamlessly. Add wireless charging and thats some alien technology right there. But I see it all happening soon.
And I think in the long run, it's nice to have service's for doing online gaming like onlive, but at the same time, that is a service and it cost's money, and has just as many disadvantages and it does advantages. Cost, lag, disconnectivity due to natural disasters or other reasons, not actually owning the software or equipment, are all reasons that people will still want to buy PC's. I still think these service's have a place in our lives, but they also are in no way a replacement for the PC.
So I know this is a long post, and I apologize about that. But to sum it up, I see a future like star trek, or minority report where all device's work together, and any technology you buy will upgrade everything else and seamlessly function together. And I think tablets and smartphones, smart t.v.s will basically be your portally into your home network and your PC core. I really don't think any market, let alone the PC market is dying or a fad, I just think that all these technologies have there place, and this moment is the beginning of everthing being integrated, and the economy is causing hiccups in the market, and slowing progression of what is inevitably going to happen. Does that make sense?
Anyways, sorry so long, not a rant, just consolidating all my thoughts on the subject and putting it out there.