Death of the PC

[hugheser]

I read alot of financial news sites and they are always talking about the "death of the PC". Well bitcoin mining is a great example of something you can't do on your cute little iPad or iPhone.

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

They are obviously not talking about power users though, most people just chat and browse the web so in term of mainstream personal usage it is a fair statement to make. I hate touch screens but I have to say my PC only turns on when I have work to do otherwise I will browse with my tablet. 

[bopbeep]

i think PCs will always have better cooling than those smaller devices, so PC will always be on top 

[alexh]

PC won't die anytime soon. The companies will make sure of that...

[Lemon]

I read alot of financial news sites and they are always talking about the "death of the PC". Well bitcoin mining is a great example of something you can't do on your cute little iPad or iPhone.

Your average (and by average, I mean greater than 99% of base) user will not be attempting to mine bitcoins, much like your average person is not out in the dirt with a pickaxe looking for gold.

The death of the full-sized form factor PC is definitely a possibility. We're in the midst of putting out a home media appliance that also functions as a complete PC (currently supports Ubuntu and Debian) and it's the size of a small block of cheese. When something that size can contain a quad core 1.7GHZ chip, 2GB of RAM, support 1080p video and use next to no power - you have to start wondering what the point in much larger (and more powerful) machines are. Remember, your average user isn't even a gamer, let alone a miner.

[Gabi]

For mining you need ASICs, not pc 

[Mike Christ]

Lolwat?  I'm assuming we're talking about Laptops and Desktops, since tablet-PCs are still computers.

[Akka]

I read alot of financial news sites and they are always talking about the "death of the PC". Well bitcoin mining is a great example of something you can't do on your cute little iPad or iPhone.

That's just marketing by the producers of pads / smartphones.

They can sell you a newer faster and shinier one each 6 month. That doesn't work anymore with PCs.

So there is money to be made with spreading the death of the PC myth.

[shibaji]

I read alot of financial news sites and they are always talking about the "death of the PC". Well bitcoin mining is a great example of something you can't do on your cute little iPad or iPhone.

Not anytime soon. Larger customer base is not tech savvy, and hence it will not be anytime soon.

[covalence]

While PCs 'death' is exaggerated, more and more people are going to be frequently upgrading tablets as opposed to PCs.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Death of PCs doesn't mean that PCs will no longer exist.  It simply means the PC market is in decline.  There will ALWAYS be PCs.  Still if a tablet has a usb port someone could write mining software to control external ASIC miners connected by usb.

[Mike Christ]

While PCs 'death' is exaggerated, more and more people are going to be frequently upgrading tablets as opposed to PCs.

Moreso the casual crowd; I'm assuming this is why Windows 8 is tablet centered, even on gaming rigs.  But I guess most people never want to use a command line

[Paul89273]

In China Desktop PC use is still very popular and it's a growing industry. Depends what you use PCs for, for the average user iPads & iPhones are just fine I guess

[Mike Christ]

McDonalds makes 1 billion less than usual

"Oh my god it's the death of the hamburger!!!!!!"

[Gimpeline]

Most users only know one system and thats windows, and the main problem for pc right now is that new ones are sold with Windows 8.
It's pretty good on devices with touchscreens, but with mouse and keyboard it's pure and utter crap.
I don't think the pc sales will go up before the big ones like hp go away from windows or microsoft makes a better operation system for pc

[Malawi]

This is really nothing new, the death of the PC have been proclaimed several times before.

I for one believe the old fashioned computer will be around for many more years. The way it's modular and that you can mix-and-match products from many different produces, and that you get a lot more ooomp per coin is also a strong factor.

That there are tablets, does not mean that something else has to go. I for one are planning on getting a tablet next time I exchange my laptop, because I really only use it for simple tasks when I travel.

[middlemarkal]

Haswell is supppose to be the last socked CPU line from Intel the next generations will be solder to the motherboard. 

[DeathAndTaxes]

Haswell is supppose to be the last socked CPU line from Intel the next generations will be solder to the motherboard.  

Nonsense (although it will be available as a BGA).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_(microarchitecture)

Still if it ever happens those that want to could use low end server boards.  To maximize uptime nobody is going to solder CPU to server boards at least not until they get a lot cheaper.  $1200 replacement CPU vs $5400 replacement 4 CPU motherboard.

[Rikai]

In all honesty, it seems like they are reverting back to previous practices. Didn't the price of laptops fall, and their sales skyrocket, once they stopped soldering every piece of the laptop to the motherboard?

[BTCisthefuture]

from what i've always read, media outlets are just talking about people moving away from the more traditional desktop or laptop and are now starting to use phones a tablets more often.  i don't think anyone really thinks high end pc's are actually going to "die".

They are correct though, nowadays most people can do everything they need to on their phones or tablets and don't have a desire to own a "computer".