If you heard the sound of nails being driven into the PC and Mac coffin Monday, you weren’t imaging things.
“We’re going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced. That theme was repeated in comments by other executives of the consumer tech giant. The Mac line of computers is no longer the hub of all Apple devices. The Post-PC era has begun.
Noting the number of people who want to use the iPad as their primary device, Apple’s Forstall said: “We are ushering in the post-PC world.” The iPad isn’t seen as an adjunct device to your Mac or PC, but as a primary computing platform. Your Mac or PC, says Forstall, is a legacy device, much like your appendix: it’s just no longer needed.
“You used to go back to a computer to create calendars or delete calendars. You can create or delete calendars right from iOS,” the Apple exec said. The list gets longer by the day as applications once thought only the domain of Macs and PCs. Even the concept of the computer being a “digital hub” for other devices, like the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Jobs realized the problem as each device gained the power of the Mac to store photos, music and more. “Keeping these devices in synch is driving us crazy,” he told the San Francisco crowd. The answer: No more connecting to the computer — wireless syncing starts with iOS 5.
That brings us to iCloud, the service that make the Post PC era possible.
“We’re going to move the digital hub into the cloud,” Jobs said. Available this fall, you’ll be able to store your music, photos, apps, mail and all digital data on iCloud.
First Apple removed the need for Mac apps, bringing them to iOS. Now the company eliminates the need for a core hard drive, giving that role to iCloud. This leave the Mac and PC as only a shell of large displays and keyboards. Is that enough reason to buy a new PC?
The answer is obvious. After purchasing an iPad, my use of a trusty iMac is limited only to work – only because a keyboard dock is needed. Family and friends, talking about their next tech purchase, don’t ooh and aah about laptops, but tablets. This changing demand likely puts iMacs and other desktop Macs into a specialized use category, like a Mac Pro Xeon server. After all, do you need a 27-inch screen to read e-mail or play Angry Birds or even correct family photos?
As for laptops, the tasks they were designed for closely match the iPad, and that category of computing device will also fade away. This is the Post-PC era we will see – and one society has been slowly adopting for years. What do you think?
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
105 responses to “Why iCloud Will Make iMacs And MacBooks Into Niche Devices [Opinion]”
I totally agree with your comments. Plug your keyboard and monitor in your iPad and you have your desktop computer. But how long before iOS devices have the processing power of an iMac?
I have to disagree….If the only purpose of the laptop is to view content, then iOS devices are fine. However, content creation is suboptimal on that platform, for a variety of reasons. By content creation, I mean writing all but the shortest documents, r & d work, etc.
Well, for me, it’s about time. I have been wanting to break the dependence on my PC for iPhone updates since I first got my iPhone. I don’t have an iPad mainly because I didn’t want to deal with syncing things on my iPhone and PC with an iPad. Now, with iOS 5 and iCloud that dependence will go away. Now each device is just that, another device, and they will be synchronized automatically. I think this will drive sales of iPads to all time highs. Now getting an iPad for someone who doesn’t have a PC or Mac is a real viable option. Way to go Apple, job well done.
My only gripe is I want it now!
You still can’t browse the web as fast as you would on a laptop with a iPad or iPhone. There’s no Crysis 2 or Starcraft 2 on the iOS devices. Writing up a document in Google Docs is twice as fast on a laptop compared to an iPad. You can’t see as much content because the screen size is smaller compared to laptops.
Yes, iOS devices are becoming more and more independent of their Mac counterparts, but laptops are not even close to becoming obsolete. Instead of one dominating the other, they complement each other.
I may have missed the point of this article in my first comment. It’s because I am so excited about removing the dependence on a Mac or PC for iOS devices. I don’t think this is the death of the Mac or PC. I believe that people who are use to a Mac or PC will continue to have them. However, for those people who don’t have a Mac or PC but want to participate in the computer and information world, ie. email, photo sharing music etc. from a primarily consumption point, iOS devices are now a real option. The people who don’t have a Mac or PC, probably don’t have them because they fear the complexity and cost of owning Macs and PCs. If Apple can figure out how to have an iPad as powerful as an iMac or powerful PC, then your death prediction my be closer to reality. However, that is way down the road from what we have now, even with these great developments by Apple.
It seems that the laptop, which currently sells more than the desktop, is going to be the first to go though. If you already own a laptop, the use case for an iPad is much harder to make, if you on the other hand own a desktop, the iPad is much more desirable.
I think that the computer will flow back to developers and graphics…..the lay user , or well most people will be on an iPad
If it’s all going to be stored in, and accessed/used from, iCloud, why should I buy that 64 GB iPad? Wouldn’t it make more sense to buy the 16 GB, save myself $200, and go, I dunno, buy everybody a beer?
Yeah sure, I’ll start designing my next magazine on an iPad tomorrow and then I’ll render a couple of 3d animations and write a 300 pages novel on the touchscreen keyboard. Sure thing.
The iPad is a beautiful machine, and I can see it being the primary computer for many households. However, niche devices can still be popular and profitable devices, and one niche device that I can’t do without is a keyboard. As a writer, I simply can’t see myself composing a novel on an iPad. I need my Macbook. But I certainly appreciate the syncing capabilities that the new iCloud has to offer.
I expect that MacBooks will continue to be offered. Though they will be just another device that Apple sells, like the iPad, it will still have its followers and its customers.
Fine if you are more of a consumer than a producer and have no need of a tactile keyboard. Difficult to write anything of any length on a touchscreen device.
Also, assumes that connectivity is available, stable, ubiquitous etc. Otherwise you have no access to your stuff. Long way to go on that one and, for the time being, Steve doesn’t control the network!
It all depends on your definition of “niche”.
The overall PC market will eventually shrink a little, but I suspect that it will remain rather solid over quite some time.
People with an affinity to computers will continue to prefer a PC, even if they don’t have any immediate use for it which the iPad couldn’t handle. They want to be able to edit a picture properly, cut a movie, burn a DVD, etc. should the need arise. Not to mention that kids are often the drivers of these kinds of purchase decisions and they want to play the latest 3D shooter, or Strategy game.
Think about cars for example. At least here in Europe, nobody really needs a car. We could well live with public transport and car sharing. It would be much cheaper and often times even more practical in big cities. Yet everybody still wants a car, just in case he has to transport something or maybe go somewhere to the countryside without having to go through the hassle and rent a car. And for that we go through all the discomfort of searching parking spots, having to refuel and repair the car constantly, etc.
What I’m trying to say is that people like possibilities, even if we never need them. A PC gives you much more possibilities than an iPad, just like a car gives you more possibilities than public transport.
An iPad might be just as good for browsing the web as my MacBook, but I might need the CD drive or the USB port eventually, or I might want to cut a wedding video for my cousin, or I might want to design a Christmas card with photoshop…none of that will likely happen, but it could and then I want to be ready…
At the same time, what we probably will see is that people who are not interested in computers, who don’t care to own one will get an iPad. Some of those people do currently own a PC because they need it for their job or hobby and will get rid of it eventually, some of them currently don’t own a PC and will now enter the digital world for the first time.
But I don’t think that the PC market will shrink drastically. You’ll still find one in most homes 10 years from now. There might be more tablets going round, but the PC will still be important in its own right.
lets not get crazy… as a professional graphic artist and CAD designer the basic editing features on a pad are ok for grandma and it is maddening to try and get a photo file off your i phone into photoshop you cant work on a laptop because you cant rely on the monitor screen to stay calibrated plus menu management in a Cad program like Rhino would be a nightmare. touch works ok but i dare you to design a relational database on a pad
adding functionality to a browsing device will enhance it but never replace the desktop
Plus there are serious issues with my employers and their confidentiality agreements with their proprietary content floating in a cloud somewhere
“If you heard the sound of nails being driven into the PC and Mac coffin Monday, you weren’t imaging things.”
Yes you were. In fact, if you heard anything of the sort, it may be time to talk to your doctor.
As with netbooks several years ago “cannabilizing” laptop and PC sales, iPad sales are likewise eating into PC sales, for now, but only because people don’t have iPads (or other tablets) yet. People are simply putting off new laptop/PC purchases for now to gain access to tablets, but it won’t last forever. Once tablets have achieved market saturation and either run their course as a fad (though I don’t think they’re fads) or else established themselves as a legitimate tool, then look for a rebound in traditional sales.
It’s a bit like when soda companies launch new flavors — the market shifts dramatically, albeit temporarily, to the new flavor, but there’s a significant return to the original flavors after that, at which point the new flavors either find a way to coexist, or else they’re axed. Tablets are nothing more than a new flavor. Some people will like them to the exclusion of all else, but most people will use them when they feel like it, when they’re the best tool for the job, or when nothing else is available, but almost certainly they will be but a part of the larger technological landscape.
(And by PC I’m blasphemously referring to all desktop machines.)
All these innovations are great improvements for the daily handling with music, photos and all that lifestyle stuff, but it would be great to see new ideas for professional mac users doing media production and design.
I´d totally download all my software from their fancy app store, but it seems there are no real professional offers. I mean I´ve already bought my iWork and I´m not interested in playing Angry Birds on my 27″ iMac or deal with it as a huge iphone. I´m using my Macs as professional working machines and not reading the news or sharing family photos..
So what´s next? Blocking Adobe software installations? ;-)
I feel sorry for the Mac, it’s such a brilliant product, yet it’s being made more and more worthless. Although I love the iPad, and probably will get one, and I love the features of iOS 5, I just hope they never kill off the Mac.
It’s a mixed bag. For those of us tech enough to read this blog, we’ll have desktops forever. But most of the public does indeed just read email and surf the web, and a PC has been overkill for years. That crowd is going to stop buying laptops and just head to the iPad. Those of us filling up a 1TB hard drive with video and photos and music (yes, more than 25K songs, the cloud limit) – we’ll always be desktop people. But in 10 years, yah, I can see the imac being like the Mac Pro – a still around, but less of an audience….
Want to save the desktop? Now is the time to encourage kids to program instead of consume.
Nope. The small screen size and virtual keyboard will always be a problem for almost any kind of writing. I need room for an outline, dialogue scratch sheet, and screenplay doc on my screen. Tablets simply aren’t built for that. And in truth, I’d much rather watch a ballgame or a vid on my iMac screen.
The biggest impact my iPad made? It turned my iPhone back into a cell phone. I rarely use it for anything but calls and music in the car now. It’s the tablet that now follows me around the house.
They make you download everything physically to a disk to get around this. Theres no constant streaming of data — its all downloaded locally. You didn’t think apple was going to screw itself out of your $200 didja?
The fact that this new order allows streaming to your TV much simpler also obviates the need for a conventional PC, except for demanding tasks such as cad and hard core number crunching and writing. Change is afoot, though not clear what we’ll have when the dust settles.
Oops. Buried the lede. Until tablets can download and process torrent files, no kid is gonna give up his or her laptop.
Such a bad article in so many ways. Even if you grant the absurd claim that traditional computers (Macs and PCs) will be relegated to be used “only” at work, that accounts for more than a third of the day for most people. How’s that a niche device??
Computers as we know them now are going away. Eventually we’ll get to the Star Trek like world where you have screens in various rooms and you can pop out a wireless keyboard or your touch screen tablet as needed or even just touch the screen in the kitchen and pull up that recipe you want. All powered off some single box hiding in the living room that feeds everything over your secure wifi. Including perhaps your ‘cable tv’
But it isn’t going to be over night. More like the next 5+ years. So folks can put away the black suits and dresses and stop writing the eulogies
“After all, do you need a 27-inch screen to read e-mail or play Angry Birds or even correct family photos”? ABSOFRIGGENLOUTELY!! The bigger the display, the better!! And, don’t forget the desktop speakers with subwoofer!! Repairing red eye, and old scanned photos is still best on a ginormous display, with the picture zoomed in as much as possible. Editing video is still best on a large desktop with a keyboard and mouse. And games, yes even Angry Birds is MUCH more fun with a BIG screen and BIGGER speakers!!!
The nail is only in the coffin for those who consume content and do VERY little creation. There is no way I’m ever going to do an entire storyboard/animatic on a touch device. There is no way I will give up digital image creation on a properly fast and powerful desktop machine. Do 3D rendering. Compositing. Any of the actual heavy creation on an iPad.
I intend to get an iPad, but it will not replace my desktop ever completely. Especially since I am not the kind of person who is confused by the File System.
I realize when Steve says stuff like that he is talking about the most casual of user. And where as I will benefit from them making things easier, I will never be comfortable giving up control of my file system completely.
for myself and my very power hungry needs my computer is NOT going away.
But for my dad who is 60+ and only wants to check the sports scores, email and perhaps Facetime his grandkids, buying him a computer for syncing when I know he won’t use it for anything else sucks. Yeah I could get him a PC for like $300 but that’s still $300. I’d rather use that money to help pay for his cable modem with wifi or get him an Apple TV so he can flash stuff up to the bigger screen (he’s a movie nut and us kids got him a 40 inch and blu-ray for Christmas).
so for folks like that and the kiddies this auto back up is great. So is the redownloads and the automatic download. My sister has the kids on their own Apple ID for their games and such and they both have ipod touches. It’s awesome that they will be able to pick a game, buy it on their account and it goes to both their ipods at once. No more ‘me first’ at the computer. for the older kids that are at the school doing the ipad in the classroom business, Mom can go into the account, help them find their apps and books and same gig. 3 at one time.
I bought a MBP 5 years ago as an upgrade to my sunflower iMac. I run my design business on it with no issues (although it is beginning to show its age). Up until last christmas I also dragged my laptop to the couch and did my surfing and whatnot there after hours. At christmas, my wife bought me an iPad and I liked it but I couldn’t see what use it would really bring me. Well, after a few weeks of setting it up and trying out several apps, I realized I have not unplugged my MBP from my monitor on the desk. So the MBP is now my primary work station and I use the iPad for consuming games, Netflix, email, etc.
For non-power users, the iPad would be more than enough of a computer. Add some home spreadsheet software for keeping your finances in order, set up email, pair to a bluetooth keyboard and it could replace my elderly parents’ cludgy Dell quite easily.
Jobs has created the computers that his generation has always needed, beginning with DIY mail-order Apple kits to the so-easy-your-grandma-could-use-it iPads.
jesus christ, do you work for a living? do you really want to do that on an iPad?
As I understand, Apple and other PC manufacturers are not going to ignore Desktops and laptops. I recall Steve in last year’s D8 interview saying something about PCs becoming more like trucks: needed only for heavy duty jobs and available but not as many as smaller lighter cars (= Tablets and Smartphones).
PCs and Macs will be much less important for basic and regular computing needs, as Tablets and Smartphones become the dominant devices to access the internet and run programs.
Many have talked about the move to the Cloud, and there are doubts about reliability and security issues. Apple’s decision is a bold one and Steve said the company is ready and serious about it. I think if any company can really make it “just work”, it would be Apple.
There will still be people who will need power and performance and want to keep files secure on a hard drive.Bandwidth caps for us poor Canadians may also take some of the shine off iCloud.
Mr. Jobs is probably right, but it will take new input methods that replace typing keyboards for the personal computer to fall out of favor. Personally I gave up on my iPad because it was very difficult to do anything useful on it and I love my giant iMac so much. But one day something new will change everything and it is quite likely to be made by Apple.
A couple of thoughts – google has offered many of these possibilities for a long long time so I’m not sure how this is a paradigm shift. Photos – try flicker.
The problem with the cloud is 3 fold (off the top of my pointy dome):
1) you’re totally reliant on the storage provider for security and continuity.
Apple is not so good with continuity – 4 years and out seems about par.
Security is still an unknown as their target becomes larger on the radar. Their secretive nature and defensive posturing does not bode well.
2) With providers cutting bandwidth this is going to get expensive fast.
3) well, in point #1 I said security AND continuity so effectively that’s 3. Hey, I’m not payed to write this shit.
How do you and the Perezi (Brownlee and Bell) decide when to append the [Opinion] designation on your linkbait? Ouiija board?
The PC (of which the Mac is a subset) has always been “just a device.” The revolution is about data storage. Where will your most important data live? Will you trust Apple (or anyone) to be the sole guardian of your data? iCloud sounds like a great advance for data portability — we’ll see if it “just works” in the fall — but I (and many others, I’m sure) will look to have multiple cloud storage options, as well as secure local storage for EVERYTHING vital.
I will need a Mac to run Final Cut Pro. Unless they find a way to run it on an iPad
As convenient as iPad is, it doesn’t have the power I want in a computer as of now. I don’t see that changing. When I edit photos or movies I want something with more power. I don’t use my iPhone camera because I want more power in video. I think Apple is sort of right on this one. But like the addition of a partition to hold the Lion Operating system, Apple is just trying to find ways to give us less for the extra thousand dollars we pay for their stuff.
I still see a hierarchy of tech devices, which correspond to different tasks. I use my iPhone as an alarm, or for communication, and quick news updates. The iPad is great for playing games and watching movies during downtime, but it’s too bulky to be an easy communication device. It also doesn’t have the power that I get with my macbook pro, which is useful for typing papers and playing with photoshop. However, if I need something really intensive; like playing real video games the way they were meant to be played, I go to my PC. I wish I could get the same performance from a mac! iCloud will make things easier for little things, but it won’t replace HDD’s for large storage, and cloud gaming still isn’t up to par. Its a great upgrade, but I don’t see iOS killing PC’s and Macs any time soon.
You can have 52″ display with iPhone and 1080p airplay that is coming.
That’s what “they” want. Not what “I” want. I don’t have an iPad, I don’t want an iPad. I have an iMac 27 and my next buy will be another iMac 27. If I cannot, for any reason, buy an iMac, I will move to another platform…maybe Ubuntu or Mandriva…who knows…
Re. your “If Apple can figure out how to have an iPad as powerful as an iMac or powerful PC, then your death prediction my be closer to reality.”
It’s not a matter of “if” but “when” Apple and other companies will do this. In fact, in a few years you’ll be able to buy various screen-size tablets that will be ultra thin and light, and much faster and more powerful than the present-day desk-top computers. It’s only a matter of a few-years time.
Sure, the desktop PC/Mac will go down behind mobile devices. That is because 90% of PC/Mac users really do use their computers only for e-mail, facebook, twitter and photos. For years PC/Mac for over powered for these simple tasks. 20-15 years ago PC/Mac were used by nerds, scientists, programmers, gamers. Then came Win95, PCs got so cheap that daddy could buy one for the family so that mommy could store her cooking recipes and funny-cat graphics on the hard-drive and daddy could do some “budgeting” on Excel and write complaint letters in Word. People did not need a degree anymore to get a sound-card to work – PC/Mac could be used by anyone for the simplest tasks. The modern mobile devices fit exactly the need of all those “low-level-application” users and makes PC/Mac obsolete in most cases. PC/Macs will again become what they once were: computing aids and working stations – and that is ok.
I guess it depends on your needs, wants and desires. I was looking at an AppleTV but have decided to get a Mac Mini instead. Not much larger but gives me storage for my iTunes library and can serve as an iTunes server. It would also give access to Hulu and Boxee on the main television. From there I can install AppleTV devices in the bedroom. They can access movies, television series and music through Home Sharing.
On my desktop, I’ll probably end up with a MacBook Pro as my main machine. Hook it up to my existing monitors and work. Doesn’t mean that I’ll get rid of my iPad or change my plans to purchase an iPhone. It also doesn’t mean that I’ll get rid of the three computers and server in the home either.
Moving everything to “The Cloud” is just fine – until one has no connection to the cloud, which even today happens all too easily and often when one steps away from the urban environment.
My MacBook still works just fine, and has all of it’s files and apps, when all it can see in the aether is “No Signal.”
Maybe some folks only travel in the nice safe places where there is always a good signal, but some of us, indeed, many of us, are more adventurous than that.
(Yes, I do my own back-ups to two separate, non-collocated hard drives.)
The mac and PC are no longer needed?!
Is he on crack?!
I doubt all of apples developers / art workers etc code and design on Ipads!!!
For most people I agree a PC is overkill, but they are still needed!!!!!
I really enjoy my iPad, it’s fun to use and works well for consuming media (as everyone has always said). But it really keeps me from being creative, and I really dislike that about it. I purposely got an iMac instead of a Macbook Pro a few years ago when I had the money to replace my main computing device (a deceased Sony Vaio), and I chose the iMac because I wanted that screen real estate for design work.
I don’t regret getting the iMac at all, but I do regret the iPad a little bit. If I’d known how much easier it was to refresh Joystiq.com while laying on the couch than to sit at a 90° angle in front of a desktop to make things, I would have just waited to get a Macbook Pro and learned to use a trackpad in Photoshop. Lesson learned: I’m not just a consumer, so the iPad isn’t exactly for me. But it’s awesome for other people.
So, as long as people like me exist, I don’t think Macs or PCs or Macbooks will be all that “niche.” They’ll just be used by people who make things and not your average Facebook-checker.
I don’t know, though. Some people might need the power to actually work on some hardcore stuff (edit audio, video, etc) but would absolutely need portability (photographers, musicians who use MPBs in concert). Those people will still need laptops. And for those who want a big monitor while at their desk, they can just hook up the laptop to a monitor and either use a separate keyboard or the one on the actual laptop.
If I’d had the money for a separate monitor, I would totally have gotten a MBP and a monitor rather than an iMac and (much later) an iPad. I still think the desktop would be the first device to “die” for the average consumer. It’d then be used only by the most professional/nerdy people who want to be able to update hardware or need absolutely ridiculous computing power (rendering 3D, gaming, etc).
If iOS totally supported a mouse in addition to the keyboard, I’d agree with you, but until then, editing on the iPad sucks a whole lot.
WTF are you talking about? “Download everything physically to a disk”? What is this, 1987? There IS constant streaming of data. That’s the point of the cloud.
If you’re just using the iPad for nothing more than a giant iPod, or to browse the internet, there’s no earthly reason to buy the 64GB, or even 32GB version. However, if you are planning on downloading a ton of apps, or want access to your stuff with no Wi-Fi or 3G access and want to download the MP3s or movies directly to your device, you might need more storage.
i went to Hawaii once & brought a digi. camera. i took upwards of 200 pics, & then on the dry side of kauai the thing fell from my hand to it’s death 40 feet down a small crevass between the lava-rock. i took no more pics the entire trip. strangely enough, i have more vivid memories of that time than ones in which i’ve taken small picture-tours of the entire trip. honestly, the memories i have actually bring back scents that i smelled there- even with no fruit around. i’ve wondered why & came up with maybe it’s cause i have no visual record of it. maybe it’s because of this that the memories are deeper. some things cannot be captured, stored, shared, and then saved. they happen, you were there, they go away, and then you’re left to recreate them in order to see them again.
Warning: ICloud changes the way you use Outlook. Rather than just syncing via iCloud, Apple has stolen my data off of my calendar and put it into the “Calendar in iCloud”. And since I was already synced, iCloud duplicatede many of the calendar entries – so now I have to of the same meeting listed at the same time, any everyone’s birthday is listed twice. Also, it does not support outlook calendar reminders. It changed them all to “Tasks” and when you save a new appointment with a reminder you get what is in effect an error message that Apple’s support page says can be ignored.
“When adding a reminder (alert) to an Outlook Calendar Event stored in the iCloud collection, Outlook will provide an alert reading: “The reminder for “eventName” will not appear because the item is in a folder that doesn’t support reminders. Is this OK?”
This alert can be disregarded; simply click OK.”
That sucks. Apple is trying to be God. Run. It will take me hours to fix things.
Dream on Apple. iPad is not a general purpose computer as long as I can’t program it directly or sell my programs without giving you a cut. Nice try though.