Opinion Living on the cloud
With Apples iCloud,Googles Chromebook and Microsofts Skydrive,have we entered the post-PC era?
Last Monday was probably the first day of the post-PC era. No,the PC is not dead,at least not yet,but last week it lost its status as the sun of the computer world,around which other devices orbit for their existence. Last week,the personal computer,once the power centre of all things digital,came under a cloud,quite literally.
Cloud computing is nothing new. In fact,cloud services have been growing at a rapid rate over the past few years. But there was always a dichotomy between the PC and the cloud; the latter acted as a sort of force multiplier for whatever you were doing on the former. Last Monday changed all that,with the cloud breaking free from the shackles of the PC. And like most game-changing technology shifts in the past decade,this one,iCloud,also came from Apple.
iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly,and because its integrated into our apps you dont even need to think about it it all just works, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his keynote address. He also went on to call the cloud the truth,pretty much summing up what he thought of all this.
In the iCloud world,you no longer have to run to a PC to load files into your devices,at least not on your handheld Apple devices,and there are about 200 million of them around at last count. Users can now download music and apps directly to their iCloud account and sync it to multiple devices. When Apples new iOS5 takes over iPhones and iPads,all this will happen in the background,users would just dont have to bother. And,yes,the PC has no role in this new scheme of things.
And no,this is not just an Apple story. Microsofts Skydrive is expected to be the iCloud of Nokia-land when Windows start to run on the new generation of smartphones from the Finnish mobile giant. Microsoft is also doing its bit to choke the conventional PC environment,if the sneak preview of its latest operating system is anything to go by. Windows 8,as it is called now,is also aiming for a mouse free-world with an interface that is more suited for touch and tablets.
Elsewhere,Google will start shipping its Chromebook from June 15. Though it looks like any other laptop or netbook,Googles latest offering will have its soul in the cloud. Chromebooks are built and optimised for the web,where you already spend most of your computing time. So you get a faster,simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers, says the Chromebook website,subtly driving another nail into the PCs coffin. The Google netbook will also kill the concept of the C drive. It will take the device just 18 seconds to go online,which means there wont be any time to waste on the computers own hard drive. And since most of the work will be on the cloud and restricted to Google apps,the first set of Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung are not expected to waste resources building storage space on the device.
That the PCs future does not look all that bright became obvious when technology research company Gartner on Wednesday lowered its forecast for worldwide personal computer growth. Mini-notebook shipments have noticeably contracted over the last several quarters,and this has substantially reduced overall mobile PC unit growth, explained Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal,acknowledging the impact of media tablets,such as the iPad.
Interestingly,recent studies have shown that many of the people buying the so-called post-PC devices have never owned a PC before. It helps that computer literacy the ability to differentiate your C drive from your E drive and the wisdom of knowing when to restart your computer is no longer a prerequisite for operating tablets like the iPad. The new generation of picture book interfaces is computing for dummies at its very best.
But it is too early to write off the PC,at least not as long as it remains the preferred mode of computing for the corporate sector. We are not that close to a day when companies will give you tablets to work from office,or even your home not even with the BlackBerry Playbook around. You will still have to return to the trusted old PC for hardcore data crunching and other resource intensive jobs there is no way anyone is going to write a novel using an iPad.
However,there is no doubt that the PC,most definitely its interface,will evolve for the post-PC environment. We will see the new desktops and laptops coming with the added advantage of touch and running apps popular on other devices. Who knows,the PC might just evolve into something better,something more adapted to living with the cloud.
nandagopal.rajan@expressindia.com
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