Over the last 24 hours, I've had a lot of people ask me what I thought of the iPad announcement from Apple yesterday, so I thought I'd write a post about it. The iPad is an incredibly amazing device and I will be buying one right away. But I think something bigger happened yesterday - the death of the PC.

It was bound to happen. When you think about it, PCs suck. Even the Mac sucks. Files and folders suck. The desktop sucks. They were great when people couldn't understand this new fangly computer things and you only had a few k of data on a floppy. But with the average person now storing GBs of data, that old model just doesn't work anymore. And then the PC is afflicted with all kinds of other problems - incompatibilities, crashing, etc, etc. Hardware doesn't work with software. Its a mess. A huge part of the IT industry is dedicated to servicing PCs because they just don't work very well.

The iPod and the iPhone have really changed the way we think about computing devices. Hardware and software are tightly integrated with none of the driver and other hardware compatibility problems of the PC. There's no messy desktop with files all over the place because files are shown in the context of the applications that use them. Apps are more simple without all those ridiculous tools bars. And they were made for the 21st century because internet services and cloud based storage are seamlessly built in. In short, the iPhone was what computing aught to be. But meanwhile, the busted ol' PC just kept chugging along. Mostly a replacement industry now, but for all their glitzy UIs, the smartphones just weren't powerful enough or frankly big enough to replace the PC. Apple changed that yesterday. When Steve Jobs showed iWork running on the tablet, he might as well have put a stake through the heart of the PC as we know it. The iPad can do 80% of what most people need to do on a computing device, and it can do it faster, easier, and with a way better interface.

In 5 years, most companies won't even buy employees PCs anymore. They'll just have tablets. Printed paper all over your desk? That's dead too. We'll have all our work and our lives accessible on tablets and stored in the cloud. These devices will be cheaper than PCs and have much much lower TCO.

The bloated desktop OS and the OS wars. Those are dead too. Companies won't compete on OS anymore and you'll never see a shrinkwrapped OS again. From now on, OSes will be lean enablers that stay out of the user's way not get in their face with all kinds of crufty self-aggrandizing features.

I also want to say a word about the A4 chip that powers the iPad. This cannot be understated. Intel has been doing some amazing things the last few years, largely at Apple's prodding, but the fact that the A4 is NOT an x86 processor sends a big message. I have been saying for a few years that we were headed for a collision of the ARM and x86 worlds and those worlds smashed right into one another yesterday. One of the most telling things that Steve said yesterday is that he can get 10 hours of battery life on iPad watching video. The only way that can happen is hardware accelerated video with dedicated on die support and even the consolidated 2-chip architecture of the new Atoms doesn't get you there. Hate your battery life on iPhone? Apple does too and that's why they are making their own chips. Nothing off the shelf delivered the integration, the power, or the battery life they needed. Apple will continue to stay one or more steps ahead of the
competition because their silicon will stay ahead and they no longer need to worry about the competition drafting off their innovations two weeks later. That Intel marriage sure didn't last long. For 80% of people, it will be ARM from here on out. Intel will punch back, but to do it, they are going to need to stop protecting the PC and let it die. Not sure if they are ready to do that. BTW, don't buy an iPhone over the next few months because Apple will surely put some version of the A4 in the iPhone soon and the performance and the battery life will be a lot better.

It is interesting to me that Apple, the company that really invented the personal computer just killed it. But with 10% market share for the Mac, Apple was never going to unseat Microsoft without changing the game. But make no mistake, the game just changed, big time, and if I were Redmond, I would be quaking in my boots.

So in summary - the PC is dead, the desktop is dead, files and folders are dead, the mouse is dead, printed documents are dead, OS wars are dead, and x86 may be dead. Long live the iPad! Welcome to the future....