How long until desktop and laptop computers are phased out??

[NZStreetBaller]

its only a matter of time until cellphones can do absolutely everything a computer can do and more.

although the only thing it will never replace will be the large keyboard and large screen.

[bigkingsfan]

Not in this lifetime. The gap between CPU and Graphics is still too wide.

[fiddy]

its only a matter of time until cellphones can do absolutely everything a computer can do and more.

although the only thing it will never replace will be the large keyboard and large screen.

[iamgine]

Soon friend...soon.

[Duderonomy]

For personal use, yes. For businesses, not in the next 20 years.

[DCL]

can't do word processing or excel on a phone.

i mean, you can do those things on a phone, but it's so inconvenient.

some things still require a nice big screen and a keyboard.

and doubt college students are interested in thumbing or fingering a 20-page essay on a little phone.

laptops ain't going anywhere.

[knickballer]

There's the Tablets that you can do word and excel on but problem is you'll need one of those keyboards to plug in with the tablet or it becomes inconvenient. At that point it's pretty much a small ass laptop with limited features.

[Andrei89]

Sure. If that futuristic phone appears which projects a screen anywhere you want and you can also use that projection as a touchscreen.

[DCL]

I have to disagree here. I love spreadsheet on my phone (5.5" size) and use it almost daily for budgeting. Google simplified/optimized to where it's super easy to use. I suppose the 5.5" size phone helps but it's also harder to carry around than an under 5" phone. Can't win...lol

you *can* do it, and i do some on the run too, but it's very inconvenient. i guess what you do is easy though if you don't have a lot of cells on the sheet. but if you have a beefier spreadsheet with dozens of rows and columns and pages that you want to easily navigate with a quick mouse, i find that much easier than trying to operate with fingers on a small screen.

[ballup]

Energy is another big issue unless you can drastically optimize the efficiency of handheld devices.

[embersyc]

It's 10-20 years away yet imo.

Solid state storage needs to surpass magnetic in price point, as I think people will eventually revolt against having all of their data in the cloud. You will still need servers, and as graphics cards get better they tend to get bigger and have more fans for a year or two. Lot's of high end scientific computing requires running many graphics processors in parallel still.

That said, I think it's already here for the average person who is not at work, or who doesn't work in a technical field, and who doesn't need bleeding edge graphics processing.

The question I have is something like a Microsoft Surface really a tablet, or is it just a smaller touchscreen laptop. The line is blurred.

Then you have form factors like NUC and PC on a Stick. These are really just small desktop PCs. My NUC is almost small enough to put in my pocket , yet it has a core-i5, 16GB ram, Ethernet, Wifi, 4 USB ports, Infrared, 500GB harddrive, only thing it really lacks is a great graphics processor, but it's still better than a PS3/XBOX 360 in this area. Makes it seem really close, until you look at the power pack, and realize it's almost the same size as the computer.

One problem is increasing resolution constantly requires more graphics processing. Right now as 4K seeks to become the new standard, and 8K is debuting in the marketplace the current generation of graphics processors are not truly able to handle rendering at these resolutions without running multiple cards.

Still once WiDi (Wireless Display) and Bluetooth get a few more iterations under their belt. I think it is reasonable that your phone could stay in your pocket and you could use any display (already phones are capable of this for playing video, but we don't really see it for apps yet), and a bluetooth keyboard/mouse to control it. This will work fine for most applications for most people.

[DeuceWallaces]

It's 10-20 years away yet imo.

Solid state storage needs to surpass magnetic in price point, as I think people will eventually revolt against having all of their data in the cloud. You will still need servers, and as graphics cards get better they tend to get bigger and have more fans for a year or two. Lot's of high end scientific computing requires running many graphics processors in parallel still.

That said, I think it's already here for the average person who is not at work, or who doesn't work in a technical field, and who doesn't need bleeding edge graphics processing.

The question I have is something like a Microsoft Surface really a tablet, or is it just a smaller touchscreen laptop. The line is blurred.

Then you have form factors like NUC and PC on a Stick. These are really just small desktop PCs. My NUC is almost small enough to put in my pocket , yet it has a core-i5, 16GB ram, Ethernet, Wifi, 4 USB ports, Infrared, 500GB harddrive, only thing it really lacks is a great graphics processor, but it's still better than a PS3/XBOX 360 in this area. Makes it seem really close, until you look at the power pack, and realize it's almost the same size as the computer.

One problem is increasing resolution constantly requires more graphics processing. Right now as 4K seeks to become the new standard, and 8K is debuting in the marketplace the current generation of graphics processors are not truly able to handle rendering at these resolutions without running multiple cards.

Still once WiDi (Wireless Display) and Bluetooth get a few more iterations under their belt. I think it is reasonable that your phone could stay in your pocket and you could use any display (already phones are capable of this for playing video, but we don't really see it for apps yet), and a bluetooth keyboard/mouse to control it. This will work fine for most applications for most people.

Yeah I can see it for the everday person. My fiance and a lot of friends have no need for a desktop, but I game, run lots of statistical models in parallel on my PC for work, etc. I won't be able to give one up until something along the lines of a Surface Pro can meet my storage and processing needs.

[ALBballer]

Tablets are already phasing out labtops for everyday use. If the Ipad Pro ran Mac OS instead of IO9 I would of probably considered buying one and replacing my notebook.

[StephHamann]

its only a matter of time until cellphones can do absolutely everything a computer can do and more.

although the only thing it will never replace will be the large keyboard and large screen.

Even simple things like writing a letter are a pain in the ass with Tablet/Smartphone

[DCL]

having everything that fits into a pocket is nice but people still appreciate the functionality of a mouse (or touchpad, at least), keyboard, and nice big screen to get things done.

even simple shortcuts... like finding text, opening or saving a file, etc., it's quicker to just control-f or shift-whatever instead of fingering around on a little screen.