Thursday, May 30, 2013

Tablet Killed the PC Star?!?

I read quite a few tech blogs. I by no means read all of them. But I think I get a pretty good sampling of what the industry is up to by reading the ones I do (Endgadget.com for example). One of the "trends" I've seen lately has been these sites claiming that tablets, whether that be Apple's iPad or Samsung's Galaxy Note or someone else's, are taking over PC's. They claim this because there has been a small dip in PC sales numbers, whereas there has been a exponential increase in tablet sales. No, I don't have any numbers to back me up this time. The numbers the tech sites have are good and seem valid. The thing is I don't think tablets are going to win. The biggest reason for it is two fold, gaming and design.

Sure there are absolutely amazing games on tablets. Games like Real Racing 3 and Infinity Blade are huge for tablets (and phones), but I don't see anyone playing Bioshock Infinite on an iPad. No one is playing HALO 4 on a Galaxy Note. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim isn't coming to a Kindle Fire anytime soon. These are console or PC games (okay, HALO isn't PC). These games will likely never make it over to the tablet gaming world, unless you count the Razer Edge Pro a tablet (More Info about Razer Edge here). Gaming will always be primarily on console or desktop PC. If anything I feel (note this is not back up by any evidence) that PC gaming is actually on the rise. I'll deal with why I think more people should use PC gaming in a minute.

The second thing that PC's do better than tablets is design. For the record PC here means Mac or Windows based machines. Design in my world is all encompassing. Whether it's programming, video editing, photography or graphic design, there just isn't a tablet out there that can do what a well made PC can. Sure there is Photoshop for iOS and Android but it's not the same quality nor does it have the same tools. Sure iOS has iMovie for iPad and iPhone, and I'm sure there is something equally as good for Android, but it can't hold a candle to Adobe Premiere CS or Avid or Final Cut 10 or even iMovie for Mac. I could mention InDesign and Illustrator for PC and Mac, but no real good tablet version. Sure there are drawing apps, but they are mostly made for sketching out ideas and then moving them to something that can actually make the files. Tablets are if anything feeding people back toward PC's.

I have a tablet (specifically an iPad 2). I also have a Hackintosh PC1 and a Mac Mini2. The Mini basically runs my TV. My ipad is my go everywhere device, but my Hackintosh PC is where I do most of my work. This blog post is on the desktop. My current logo project is on the desktop. My audio projects are on the desktop (despite GarageBand for iPad existing). Tablet's aren't going to kill PC's anymore than video's killed radio. That being said, if Razer's Edge catches on and those powerful tablets get much cheaper (The Razer Edge is $1000 for the basic model and $1500 for the 256GB Pro version, a laptop costs less than that as to most desktops) gaming and design will still be the domain of PC's and that means that they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

1. A Hackintosh PC is a computer that is end user built (meaning I built it) that can run Mac OS and Windows. I have two hard drives (one for each OS) but there is a way to do it with only 1 drive.

2. I have a 2012 Mac Mini connected to a Elgato (technically Silicon Dust) HDHomeRun tuner that can record and playback my TV feed using Elgato's EyeTV program.

If you have questions about any of my tech specs I'm happy to answer them.