Is the Post-PC Era a Myth?

The way one should interpret the term “Post-PC” is “after PC” – implying that the world has changed from era to the next. Sarah Perez at TechCrunch does an admirable job of laying the case for what she calls the Post-PC era or alternatively – “PCs Everywhere” which I agree isn’t quite as catchy.

In her article she discusses how Apple sold 37M iPhones in Q4, 15% of the official PC market is made up of tablets (mostly iPads) and Apple is now the leading “PC” vendor. Moreover smartphone shipments last year hit 487.7M while PC shipments hit 414.6M and the smartphone growth rate is 63% versus 15% for PCs.

So one would imagine once again that the phrase “Post-PC” means that there aren’t going to be more PCs sold.

Gary Kim writes on IP Carrier that while global tablet sales are growing at 98% YoY for 2012, the PC market is expected to increase 4.4% and will increase to 10% in 2013.

The catch is – and there is always a catch, that most of these sales will be in emerging markets and will be for more portable computers – laptops, ultrabooks, etc. Kim makes the argument however that tablets may be 42% of total PC sales by 2016 – a staggering percentage.

The trend is clear however that portability and style trump virtually everything else when it comes to the tech space. And moreover although the PC space is growing – it is in-part because tablets are being factored in.

So really the proper explanation for what is happening is we are entering a post – bland, nontransportable PC market phase. Let’s just call is “Post-PC” for short.smiley-smile

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