PC Innovation

I have been following the writings and speeches of Professor David Gelernter of Yale University for several years. He is a really smart guy and has great perspective on the future of information technology. Most recently I read with great interest Dr. Gelernter's contribution to the Wall Street Journal and the letters to the editor which have been appearing in response. The basic premise of the good professor's essay is that innovation in the personal computer space is dead and that information technology vendors are not stepping up to the major issues of users. In some respects I agree with him but as a veteran of the PC business (several of my short thirty-five years at IBM) and an avid PC hobbyist since the days of the Radio Shack TRS-80 (1977), I believe there are a few additional factors to be considered.

I think of the Personal Computer in two different ways. First as a standalone computer that I use for some number of hours per day with application software such as Quicken for financial matters and Movable Type and Dreamweaver for managing my blog and patrickWeb. Secondly, I think of the PC as one of a number of devices that I use to connect to the Internet to interact with business, entertainment and information services such as Amazon, eBay, eFax, CopyTalk, Netflix, Weather Underground, Google News, and iTunes. Let's examine innovation in each of the two categories -- PC as a computer on my desk, and PC as one of many devices connected to the Internet. (read more)

Personal Computing January 9, 2005 10:44 PM