Apple, Microsoft and Post-PC era

Two different visions

You've probably heard the recent statements by Tim Cook talk about that in the future the vast majority of people will not need a PC at all for their work.

In short, he says that in the near future, with a tablet (referring to his iPad Pro) an ordinary user will have covered all his/her computing needs (apart of a smartphone).

Before I comment on these statements, I want to assess which approach they have, following statements by Apple and Microsoft, for the Post-PC era:

Apple vision: New touch UIs

It's not surprise. Apple is tending to offer us a world where new toch UIs (aka mobile UIs) dominate the future of computing. The reason? Simple, Apple now dominates (in sales) these devices with these UIs, but not dominates the PC market.

Of course, Cook (or Apple like company) had to give another reasons for saying this.

The first reason is that the iPad Pro is more powerful than most laptops sold this year. This is true, but of course without productivity software you can't go to anywhere. It's like having a fast car without wheels.

For that reason, Cook says that theApp Store has become a platform for innovation. Cook, you are right, but not only in iOS. Windows 10 is growing up, and it has now very innovative apps like Staffpad.

It may makes sense that Apple let developers the hard work, because you have a lot of "fans" developers willing to collaborate. But, if I were Apple, I would not let 100% responsability to a external factor.So this strategy is poorly for me. You can't be sure if all your "indie" developers will not become fans of Surface and the Windows 10 Universal Platform, for example.

Another reason is that ARM is more efficient that x86. That statement may be true or not, it depends what are you doing. It's not the same edit video to work with documents, for example.

The last one is that all young people use mobile devices very naturally for all their needs. This may be true, but Cook, I can guarantee you that young people when they are using mobile devices the vast majority don't use like a productivity tool.

Microsoft vision: Touch friendly UIs but without forget the past

The opinion of Microsoft is quite different. Microsoft thinks the future of computing like hybrid devices than can do the job well, but also the fun, or both at the same time, without compromise anything (in their main OS).

This means that you can be sure to jump ahead to a Surface (with Windows 10), for example, becuaseyou will not missed any you liked in your PC, but also you can start to use the new forms (touch) of interacting with the OS, with new apps in the Store optimized for that, and also desktop apps optimized with touch, like Adobe suite.

This is a very valid option for me. I don't say Apple is wrong, probably not because its loyal customers, but for Microsoft is the correct path to follow. They can offer you an OS traditional and invite you to use the new innovative apps and touch interfaces (plus pencil, like iPad Pro), and, after that, they can offer you new devices that working only with the moderns apps, like Windows Mobile smartphones, Hololens, Xbox, etc. Microsoft introduces you to the new world without scaring the traditional user or the "Pro" (or "Heavy") user.

Surprisingly, the goal it's the same, change the desktop to mobile apps or UIs, but with different strategies

Google and its strange strategy

Google has now a very strange strategy. They have Android (with Google Services, it's not the same as others AOSP based OS), wich isthe OS leader of the mobile devices, but also have Chrome OS, wich is another Post-PC OS, but for desktop only. It's very strange, because all Post-PC OS are designed to mobile devices and maybe other devices, except this, wich it's designed for laptops only.

They need to join both in my opinion. The best way for me is making a Android OS for desktop with the same UI as Chrome OS and maybe keep the compatibility with Chrome apps and extensions.

Conclusion

In my opinion, I prefer Microsoft strategy because it's focused in all Pro people, like me. I have been using during two years full time a Surface Pro (1st model), and it's very useful for me. I can take handwriting notes and inmediately later use to write this post and write lines of code, compiling...The only disaventage is the battery life, but now it was fixed in the newer versions, so you don't have excuses to jump ahead for virtually all people. You may requiere a better machine for run some programs, but this device can run it at least. Probabily you only need a iPad Pro or another tablet for the go, but you have a very fast desktop device. That is very valid too. In my case, I could say I'm Post-PC guy the vast majority of my time in the present and future. Perhaps eventually I will need a very fast desktop device, but not for my main tasks of course.

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