The Future of the Desktop

"Android is also subtly shifting our understanding of the purpose of an operating system. Android is a means to an end for Google. The better Android is and the more it lets us do, the more of our data Google can potentially get access to. And data is Google's raison d'être. By way of comparison, Windows is an end in itself--a dead end. Microsoft gains little benefit from Windows other than the income from software licenses, which is starting to sound like a very old-fashioned way of thinking in this age of mobile devices and data clouds.

The future may in hybrid devices, and in particular an old mobile computing favorite: the docking station. I've little doubt that, right now in labs across Silicon Valley, various experimental designs mixing tablets, laptops and desktop computers will be undergoing development. The screen component will be the brains of the unit, and will effectively be a tablet computer that can be detached and carried around. For more in-depth work, users will be able to snap it back into the laptop base unit and utilize a touchpad and keyboard."

Quoted From:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/211572/intel_is_dead_on_the_desktop_says_arm_cofounder.html

Maybe. But the screen I want on the "desktop" is too big to be carried around! I guess you could make the smart phone the "brains" attached to a docking station with a big monitor, keyboard, etc., but why put all your eggs in one basket? Computers are cheap enough that a desktop that syncs wireless with the smart phone, or through the cloud seems like a better idea to me. Phones (and tablets) are too susceptible to damage, loss or theft to be the sole computing device to depend on. Also, the OS that is right for a small screen smart phone is not necessarily ideal for a larger screen (or multiple screens). I like the thought of Windows being a dead end though...