How long before Google makes Chrome a standalone product?

Right now in enterprise use, Citrix is getting popular for Cloud computing.

It's awesome, i have Citrix installed on all my devices, and i can access my desktop, files, programs (including ms office) etc.

 

Getting popular? Citrix has been doing the same thing for like 20 years.

 

Andreessen's Netscape comes to mind.

 

I actually do know about enterprise computing.

But the number of desktops/laptops in enterprise computing is much smaller than the number in the home/personal market. Sometime in the near future (if it has not already happened), the number of smart phones will surpass the number of desktops. This is a major sea change. I do not see this trend reversing.

I am guessing here ... but ... the home desktop market especially for the casual users will migrate to notebooks on their next upgrade. Thus, I see that notebooks eating desktop market share as well.

 

Eh. It doesn't sound like it.

With regards to the bolded section, you are nuts. I don't have time to research it but I would almost guarantee you that the enterprise market for desktops and laptops smoke the personal desktop and laptop market.

Smart phones and tablets are for data access not manipulation. While iPhones and tablets and the such are convenient, they suck (and will most likely continue to suck) at actually doing something with the data that they access. So I think that you point that there are more smart phones than desktops and laptops is irrelevant. I see these devices becoming more prominent, with higher levels of functionality but they are going to continue to be in the data access niche. They serve a function and serve it well. That doesn't mean they are going to replace something that they are not.

I can agree with this statement.

 

Ask an engineer to work on AutoCAD or an investment trader without multiple monitors. Ask an admin to update office documents on a tablet all day. Ask an software developer to debug their programs or code, etc. on a phone. Etc. Etc. Etc. You could come up with example after example.

 

This is why I still crack up when I watch CNBC and some talking head comes on and says "the PC's days are numbered" or "people are moving away from PC's and switching to tablets". Yes, mom and pop and senior management who like to see pie charts and neato colors on his charts are doing this to a certain extent, but the people that actually still create the content are going to need horsepower and real estate - something that a dinky tablet or phone can't do.

 

Agreed!

People will still use desktops and laptops to work.

 

Implying or saying that PCs will go away is nonsense. They are gradually becoming less relevant and we don't know exactly how far that will go, but PCs will always be needed. When Jobs mentioned the "post-PC era", I don't believe he meant they would completely disappear.

 

Tablets will never replace a Desktop anytime soon. They might be replacing netbooks and laptops down the road. What I like about tablets and smart phone is that it pushes the technology. They are now creating small cpu/gpu combo the size of a dime that will eat less battery life, produces less heat and becoming just as powerful as some laptop. They also need to find a better way to incorporate an OS that will work efficiently with the hardwares.

That the only reason why I kinda hated how slowly the desktop been involving. Instead of getting smaller and becoming more powerful and efficient. It just gotten fatter, produces great amount of heat and eats up plenty of power. I'm totally pointing at the video cards. The CPU on the other hand are getting much better and more efficient.

 

I agree with your points in this thread, but I do have to say that 1) people often forget that these devices aren't always locked in to their form factor. So many offices I work with are full of guys who love to bring in their laptops and slap them on a dock with keyboard and mouse to work on those office documents every morning. There's no reason this wouldn't happen with mobile devices.

And 2) progression always seems focused on more power in a smaller space. The mobile devices five years from now are going to be considerably more powerful than what we have now, and what we have now compared to five years ago is pretty stunning. IF the demand for data manipulation with mobile devices gets large enough, there will be some keys to help solving the problems you are referencing.

But yeah, on the whole, enterprise will not be moving away from the desktop any time soon. It's definitely an interesting dichotomy you are referring to with Access vs Manipulation that is relative to each industry and I am interested in seeing how/if those lines blur as these devices grow in popularity.

 

Here is a link that I was previously referring to ...

More Smartphones Than Desktop PCs by 2011l

I did not research this either. Certainly pre-internet, the business PC market dwarfed the home PC market. Since the advent of the internet, I know people who bought home PCs who either are retired or do not use a PC at work. I also think of several families that bought PCs for their kids. It is also common for university student to have a laptop. As a trend, I see people needing/wanting at-home (or better said not at-work) access to the internet.

I actually agree with most of this. If your need is to muscle some data, then tablets and smart phones will not cut it and you will need need a desktop PC (or something stronger).

Tablets in 5 years or so might be strong enough under the hood to crunch data for business apps. By then, I would not even be surprised to see the desktop PC market migrating to tablets as well.

We will see.

 

It's possible. I could see tablets/phones being put into a docking station with keyboard/mouse and monitor already set up.

But, is that really replacing computers or just improving computers? I doubt the pro-computer group (in the computers vs. tablets debate) would care if you told them they could continue doing everything they were doing before with their computers but instead of the tower they have a tablet. I don't think that's the argument. What people really mean is that improvement isn't happening anytime soon. Tablets need to be powerful enough to do everything I can do on my computer for me to change and by that time it won't even be a big deal. Basically, a tablet is a computer, it's just a really crappy one right now.

 

I agree. I can see phones being docked into a tablet/laptop docking station similar to what Asus is doing with with their PadPhone or Motorola tried to do with the Atrix laptop dock. Nvidia has some interesting chipsets coming out soon that will probably rival the processing power of some laptops. Kal El

 

There's no reason tablets & notebooks cannot take the place of the desktop PC. When the time comes that you can dock them and/or control display(s) while also using cloud computing the idea is totally doable and that type of environment is being tested and planned for.

Consider the HP Tablet that the gold rush is on for: It has a duo core 1.8 ghz processor or something similiar. That's enough horse power to run the majority of today's production programs. It's only a matter of time in my mind.

FWIW, my 'workstation' is a VERY highend graphic intensive dual monitor station with high end multicore processor(s). The horsepower is strictly for one program that I produce with. However, with cloud computing were seeing a new trend not only in proving that the horsepower is there in spades but also that the software vendors are already re-thinking their licensing subscriptions and there is a push to create an 'as used' pricing so that you're not paying for down time.

 

Didn't feel the need to create a new thread and out of the many Chrome thread's we've had over the years , wasn't sure which one to bump but Google Chrome for Android has finally been released.

Unfortunately, it's only available to those who are using Android 4.0+

http://chrome.blogspot.com/2012/02/introducing-chrome-for-android.html

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome

 

What the analysts get wrong is this: PCs are dying as a content consumption device, but not dying otherwise. PCs weren't always content consumption devices to begin with. They were productivity devices, and they will always be productivity devices. They will get faster, sleeker, better looking etc., but they're not going to lose their place. What is dying is the age of buying a computer for checking email, surfing the net and watching videos.