

Do you think the desktop is dead? - dkisit

There's a lot of hype surrounding mobile first. As long as they keep manufacturing large displays, I believe we still have a long way to go. What do you think?
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apress
Extending the life of the desktop: all the Internet-based ( aka cloud)
services we use more and more like Gmail, Dropbox, Evernote, Spotify, etc
which make it trivial to switch from phone to laptop to desktop and back. Even
Apple is in the game now, with iTunes Match and the ability to download
purchased apps, music and videos to all your computers. Used to be a huge pain
to keep things straight on more than one device. Today, I never worry about
it. Thinking of switching from just a laptop to also having a faster, larger
screen desktop at home base.

Some day, there will be enough computing power and storage in a tiny device
and we'll just have different size screens. But that's a ways off.

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BobWarfield
You can live off a laptop, but that's not what mobile first is about.

The desktop is not at all dead if the alternative is only reaching pad and
smartphone users. Not even close to mortally wounded for business or home. My
kid's school switched them to iPads and they immediately identified the
problem--they hate typing on the things. My son takes paper notes. They're
fine for consuming, but that's it.

Then there is the problem of app discovery, not to mention the pricing and
business models that exists in the mobile world. They pretty much limit
success to the few at the top with a lot of sharecroppers scratching out a
living down below. It's even bad enough that Fred Wilson backed off a tad from
the mobile first mantra.

More here: [http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/mobile-first-
for-...](http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/mobile-first-for-saas-
desktop-pcs-dead-nope/)

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LoneWolf
Sorry but I have to say it "Betteridge's law of headlines" so NO.

If by mobile first you mean smartphones and tablets, absolutely not, these
don't have enough processing power to replace desktops unless all you do is
email some docs and web, anything intensive (IDE, virtualization, image/video
editing, vector design, 3d, and the list goes on) will require at least a
laptop. Also most PC gamers will keep on going with the desktops not even
laptops (I'm more a casual gamer now but the games I run don't even exist for
any tablet, and most laptops will have to run them in low settings)

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mbreckon
I'd like to think we are going to see a new wave of innovation on the desktop
- web apps have been catching up to a mostly static target but perhaps now
there will be enough impetus to improve. I think that workflow and data
relation management are two areas that the desktop has an advantage over the
web (mostly due to processing power, speed of data transfer and graphics
capability)

I'll stick my neck out: due to the influence of mobile and web apps the file
system and explorer as we know it will have disappeared in 5 years to be
replaced with something better.

~~~
brudgers
Windows 8?

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mbreckon
I said better! :-) no seriously, the desktop in Win 8 hasn't changed and the
metro side doesn't make the most of the graphics processing power or real
estate of a desktop machine.

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JoelMarsh
"Mobile first" is a design strategy, which ensures that you identify the
primary content/features when making responsive designs.

It has nothing to do with which device is more important or more common.

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mikecane
No. With touchscreens, it will morph even further and converge with TVs (or
become the TV -- you know, what you watch general video on, not necessarily
what is fed by TV).

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arjn
I've been hearing the "desktop is dead" thing repeated over the last 12-15
years, maybe longer. Yet the desktop is still around. What we are seeing
though, is a blurring of the lines between desktop and mobile devices like
laptops. At work my fairly high end laptop becomes my desktop via a docking-
station setup. Other innovations will likely morph the desktop into something
more portable and lightweight while retaining all its power.

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lifeguard
I believe there was, is, and always will be a sub group of technology users
that are 'computer hobbyists'. The percent of total computer users who are NOT
in this group has gone way, way up. But I believe there is still this core
group of tinkerers.

This used to be a required demographic to have endorse ones computer product,
but no longer. Most users just want to do stuff and don't care about
technology.

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GaryGapinski
No. The one in front of me still has a lot of life in it, as do the four
monitors. I have yet to do any serious work on mobile devices, including
laptops (except when tethered to large monitors and a keyboard).

I expect the desktop will remain, if only as a convenient horizontal surface
on which to place a keyboard and one or more displays. It won't matter where
the computation takes place.

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CyberFonic
NO ! The desktop is just as important as the smartphone and tablet !

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. A smartphone is great to
tweet, etc. But you wouldn't want to Photoshop a poster with it. There are
just so many shades of grey between those two extremes and it all depends on
the use case you are specifying.

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27182818284
In the home market it is dead except for hardcore gamers. Business is
trickier. I'd say it has been mortally wounded. Most people have a macbook or
thinkpad that powers large displays, but they still take it with them and
maybe use the small 13 inch screen at a coffee shop.

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jmtucu
The Transaction processing always will be desktop.

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dkisit
Great insight!

