Apple Now the Top PC Vendor, For Some Values of PC 577
tsamsoniw writes "While research companies including IDC and Gartner deemed HP the PC leader for Q4 2012, Canalys has a different perspective. The analyst firm has declared Apple the top PC vendor for the past quarter, thanks in part to the booming success of the iPad and the iPad mini. By Canalys's reckoning, Amazon, too, now beats out the likes of Acer and Asus as leading PC vendors, having shipped 4.6 million Kindles in Q4."
So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, let's see .. it has a CPU, memory, can do input, processing, and output (the Von Neumann definition). It's capable of doing Turing complete things, and writing code written for it.
It's personal, and it meets all of the definitions of computer.
By any meaningful definition, a modern smart phone is more of a computer than what we had 20 years ago -- by a huge factor.
So, tell us, what aspects of a phone or tablet make it not a computer in your mind? They'll both run rings around an old 486.
We're no longer talking about things which are hardware specific to a task, and you could easily port any programming language to that platform. The absence of a physical keyboard or mouse don't make you not a computer (because they used to have neither).
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If they're capable of solving Turing complete problems [wikipedia.org], they absolutely they are. By definition.
An XBox is a PC which has been wrapped in a box and sold in retail stores, but it's an example of a computer for sure. It's essentially an Intel processor and a desktop PC.
And modern phones, which can be arbitrarily programmed and aren't just hard wired to be phones? Guess what, a smart phone is essentially a computer in a little tiny case.
Walk into
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Specious and irrelevant.
Back in the days you needed paper tape or punch cards, the code wasn't "written on them", and most software people will ever run wasn't written by them or on that computer. So it's not a computer until you write code on it? So by that definition most secretaries don't hav
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The personal in PC means the device was designed primarily to be used by one user at a time. Phones fit this criteria but there could be an argument that most game consoles do not, since they are designed to be used by at least two players simultaneously (usually 4 now-a-days). Handheled video games would fit though.
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Informative)
No, it means the device was intended to be owned by people, which was a change from when computers were big giant things in dedicated rooms nobody ever went near and no individual could ever hope to own.
My 486 Linux box could run more than one user back in 1993 -- was it not a "Personal Computer"? It was mine, it was a computer. Or did it magically become a server instead of a PC?
The number of intended users is not now, and never has been, part of the definition of "personal" in PC.
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The number of intended users is not now, and never has been, part of the definition of "personal" in PC.
Which is blatantly wrong, because the number of intended users has ever been the defining part of "personal" in PC, starting out with the first computer ever labelling itself a "personal computer", the Apple II. IBM's late entry to the game, the IBM PC, was exactly that: a computer as a personal tool for someone, different to all the terminal session based mainframes and minis, IBM was selling.
Re: So tablets at PCs now? (Score:2)
NetBSD?
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> it not a computer in your mind? They'll both run rings
> around an old 486.
Traditionally, a PC is a _general purpose_ computer. So you could use it for a wide variety of tasks, anything from basic end-user tasks like typing up a research paper right on through to technical stuff like CAD. Indeed, people used 486s for both of those things, back in the day. So why don't you set your camera up on a tripod and make a YouTube video of yourself att
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Lol. So clueless.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autocad-ws/id393149734?mt=8 [apple.com]
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a hiking pack for my dog.
Doesn't make her a good pack mule.
She can barely carry enough water and food for herself.
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Well, let's see .. it has a CPU, memory, can do input, processing, and output (the Von Neumann definition). It's capable of doing Turing complete things, and writing code written for it.
And my OLD cellphone... not my new fancy galaxy s3... I'm tallking my old Motorola StarTAC.
Apparently that was a PC too. It even had some sort of Java and a hideous WAP browser as i recall... still miles better than what you could do with an Apple II though am i right?
So why didn't we see any articles in the 90s about how Mo
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You just described my clock radio.
Fact is, "PC" has traditionally meant IBM PC compatibles, not the literal "personal computer." Mac vs. PC, etc. It seems you're the one who's trying to redefine what a PC is.
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No, China has the #1 market share. But not the #1 quarterly sales share. See the 1 child law.
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You probably also believe that English words should be more like Fortran constants.
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
A Mac is a PC. Especially now that there is NO difference, whatsoever, in hardware. Back in the PPC days, you might have a case, but I doubt it, since they were personal computers just like Windows and Linux boxes. Unless what GUI something uses defines whether something is a PC or not, and then, is anything not running whatever UI existed when the term was coined actually a PC either? The only difference between a Mac and a Linux or Windows box is what OS they have.
The consumer can be wrong, and various companies have abused the term to help them along. This doesn't actually change the meaning of the word, since there really isn't a way of defining that doesn't include Macs. Unless, of course your only definition of "PC" is "not a Mac", which is kind of stupid.
That said, I don't buy tablets being PCs, because they aren't "general" or generally extendable, which I would consider being important to being classified as a personal computer. If I did accept them, then I have to include phones, consoles, most modern televisions and bluray players, most routers, or basically anything having a CPU and an operating system.
Calling tablets PCs runs into the "Pluto problem", if we let them be a PC, then pretty much everything has to be a PC, and the term loses what (very little) use it once had.
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my iphone 5 is more powerful than some of the older servers in our data center
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I would argue that a smart phone is actually more of a Personal Computer than the workstation on my desk, which I use mostly for work.
I would guess that over 80% of my personal stuff is done on my phone.
My ipad is mostly for reading at night because the kindle does not have "paper white" display that you can read after the lights are out.
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Do tablets really count as a "PC"? If that's the case we might as well start considering smart phones PCs, since a modern tablet is basically just a scaled up smart phone.
Does the Windows 8 tablet count as a PC? If it does, then why not other tablets.
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Do tablets really count as a "PC"?
No, not all. Some tablets are only personal on the Surface. Under that veneer they're rather impersonal. Isn't that right, Siri?
Let me think. Here's what I found: Input Interpretation: "Last[{}] Microsoft"
Apparently she has a sense of humor. I think she just invented an emoticon depicting the Surface as a two-faced (multi-faceted) schizo in a box.
It is funny because the Surface gets dead.
OK, no more Pixar movies for you.
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Steve Jobs said in 2010 that we were entering the "post-PC" era. To him and Apple, tablets are a different device than PCs and that many consumers are starting to supplement their computing with tablets. Tablets do not replace PCs in all situations but are better suited in certain ones like couch surfing.
Ballmer in D8 said the opposite and that tablets were a "different form factor of PC." So Ballmer himself agrees with Gartner. Of course Ballmer is known for putting his foot in his mouth.
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It's all semantic nonsense, really, as TFTitle alluded to. If you take PC to mean "IBM-compatible computer", as it meant at one time in the past, then obviously iPads would be out, as would old PPC Macs, whereas Surface Pros would be in (but not Surface RTs). If you take PC to be synonymous with the old term "microcomputer", then arguably tablets ARE PCs- nobody ever said a microcomputer had to have a keyboard.
It would be tempting to say stop using the term "PC" at all- we should instead talk about top lapt
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Most of us always did. They're PCs.
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My Linux boxes aint got no screens or rodents either.
If that's the case, then they are servers, not PCs...
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Do tablets really count as a "PC"?
No, of course not. I draw the line at having an actual keyboard (which makes my daughter's HTC Desire Z phone more of a PC than a typical tablet is). TFA is just self-serving bullshit. And shame on TFS for publicizing the rubbish.
Ooh, ooh, and removable/expandable storage!
Seriously, WTF is up with many tablets not having an SD slot?
No SD slot = no FAT royalty (Score:3)
WTF is up with many tablets not having an SD slot?
Probably tablet makers not wanting to pay their tithe to Microsoft for the use of its file system patents. Windows XP can't write to any file system that isn't FAT or NTFS. Windows Vista and later can write to UDF, but SDXC mandates Microsoft's ExFAT, not UDF.
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
My desktop doesn't have a built in keyboard. It requires an external keyboard to be plugged in or synced to have keyboard functionality.
My iPad has a built in (virtual) keyboard. It does not require an external keyboard to be synced to have keyboard functionality but, if I so choose, I can utilize one to have a physical keyboard.
So, by your keyboard criteria, my desktop is not a computer and my iPad is.
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but you can't claim that a smart phone or tablet isn't a computer on that basis ... ENIAC wasn't personal, but by the GPs definition it didn't have a keyboard, so it wasn't a computer either. Which is blatantly false.
By the definition I learned when I got my degree in CS, if it is capable of solving Turing complete problems, it is a computer -- and why we should be having this argument on Slashdot of all places is mind boggling.
If I used a bluetooth keyboard with an iPad, do you think that keyboard magically turns it from "not a computer" to "is a computer"?? But a virtual keyboard keeps it from being one??
The architecture itself would be capable of running any programming language ported to it -- that is what makes it a computer. It has a general purpose CPU with an instruction set, and the ability to write new logic on it that isn't defined statically in hardware, ergo, computer.
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Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:4, Funny)
I sleep with my iPad at night. That's pretty personal.
You can have your klunky towers and desktops!
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
... why we should be having this argument on Slashdot of all places is mind boggling.
Why? Because some folks around here hate Apple so much that they believe that any report showing them as #1 at anything must obviously be because of incorrect definition or incorrect methodology or something. Plus, there are many in the Slashdot community who cannot accept the notion that definitions of categories might actually change over time. Unless it has a detachable, full-size keyboard, a monitor that sits on a desk, and an ugly box, it's not a PC, regardless of functionality.
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but by the GPs definition it didn't have a keyboard, so it wasn't a computer either.
I don't know where you're getting that from, he didn't even use the word "computer". He said PC. No one except you is arguing about the definition of a computer, the argument is the definition of the term "PC", or personal computer if you prefer. "Personal" is not an optional adjective, it's part of the term. The article is not about the top computer maker, it is the top PC vendor, and the question is what exactly defines a "PC". The person you responded to said that his definition of PC starts at supp
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It all comes down to who controls your computer. If you can install your own programs on it, it's a microcomputer. If you have to ask your boss, it's a minicomputer, If you have to fill out a form in triplicate, and wait for the results to be mailed back to you along with a bill, it's a mainframe.
Tablets are personal, inasmuch as they are designed to be used by a single user, according to their whims. However, the vendor generally restricts what you can do with the machine.
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Well, that's both arbitrary and wrong. The older mainframes that used paper tape and punch cards didn't have keyboards.
You don't get to define what makes a computer, and by any meaningful definition, a tablet is undeniably a computer.
ENIAC didn't have a keyboard, that doesn't mean it wasn't a computer.
Sorry, but you're wrong.
um they didn't say computer they said pc or personal computer based off of the original ibm pc which have always had keyboards.
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So? The VAX I used in college also had keyboards (each attached to its individual vt320). It wasn't used as a personal computer.
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Personal Computers are subsets of Computers. Calling your microwave a computer though doesn't really work. More than likely it just has a lot of complex digital logic circuits, but it is not a computer.
Your desktop and tablet can both be computers without them both being PCs (Personal Computer)
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Gee, no kidding ... but people are saying lack of a keyboard makes it not a computer. That's not true.
So if it's a general purpose computing device (which it is), other than semantics by people who seemingly don't know anything about computers ... what specific trait about a tablet makes it not a computer? Being handheld? Being small?
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:4, Interesting)
What slashdot believes about tablets is completely irrelevant. They talk about tablets as just scaled up phones like the size of the screen doesn't make a huge impact on the use of the device. It represents a huge change not only to the display but also to the input device. To call them the same thing is to ignore the entire interface paradigm, something sadly common among engineers actually.
Slashdot will be parroting this "tablets are only for consumption" thing forever regardless of how people are actually using them in the real world.
iTrinkets refuse to run these application classes (Score:3)
"Can run software applications, and is not specialized to run one particular category of software" is probably a better definition - and both tablets and smartphones qualify. iOS and Android are both Unix variants, if you recall.
An iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad is specialized to refuse to run video games including realistic violence, roulette (whether chat or Russian), satire of an identifiable organization, card counting apps, apps that let the user log locations of seen Wi-Fi hotspots, apps that "download code in any way or form" such as a game maker, web browsers that implement HTML features that Apple has left out of Safari, launcher replacements, and more.
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Then we should treat game consoles, both home and portable, as PCs too. So that makes, for example, Nintendo rather significant PC vendor.~
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Don't forget calculators and abacuses (yes, they're still in use in some parts of the world)
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Calculators have microprocessors.
Your pad of paper alternative does not.
Yes it's absurd. That's the entire point. The original premise was absurd. Tablets aren't PCs. They're appliances.
Sauce for the goose...
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
So anything with a CPU and some flavor of user interface is now a PC? Don't forget most DVD or Bluray players, and most televisions too (our televisions all have a nice GPL notice in the back, viva Linux).
This TFA is pretty stupid. I love my Nexus 7 (10" Transformer less so), but I wouldn't consider it a PC. I see PCs as general computing devices, with their primary attribute being the term "general". Right now there is a very large amount of things that I just can't do on my tablet, or phone that I can do on my PC. Further, PCs are expandable, and extensible (both of these being somewhat prerequisites to "general"). Sure, some computers have limited, and mostly unacceptable, hardware (Macs), but even then there is a very large pool of peripherals, and they still have a very large ability to modify the software for almost any task. Tablets don't really do this, there are abilities that they are not going to really support, either by design or intrinsic factors.
My Nexus is a toy computer. I love it, but it isn't an actual PC.
Yes, being literal, it would be a PC, since it computes, as in crunches numbers, and it is personal, as in I own one. I think the term has evolved beyond this though.
Even dumber, considering a Kindle a PC is just... I don't even have words. A Kindle, a normal Kindle, is a dumb device that is only good for a single purpose. A Fire, or the various Nook flavored bargain tablets, might be PCs, if we accept full tablets as PCs.
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> There is nothing that could be done on an original IBM PC that cannot be done on tablets and smartphones today.
The P in PC stands for personal. That means that you can do whatever you like with it. It is a GENERAL PURPOSE device IN YOUR OWN CONTROL.
You can write the next killer app for the PC and you don't have to worry about anyone getting in your way. You don't have to worry about your company's IT department or Apple corp because you are in control.
That's not the model for tablets.
Tablets are more l
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Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a really fuzzy distinction. Taking the iPad as an example, what aspect of it makes it not a PC? Not the hardware, it can be connected to a physical monitor, keyboard, etc. Not the general tasks you can accomplish with it, most of those overlap, and for many people, all of them do (my father uses one to replace a computer, doing his surfing, e-mail, word processing, etc. on a tablet).
I don't think your criteria of expandability works. The majority of computers sold today have little no no expandability; try swapping out the processor in your laptop. There are external peripherals, but so are there too for tablets.
I think what is a PC and what isn't depends largely on how the owner uses it. My father uses his iPad as a computer, because it does everything he did on the computer it replaced. I don't, using mine for occasional media consumption and casual games.
As a parting comment, I'd point out that the Chromebook is considered to be a personal computer, but that it is far less flexible and capable on a software level than an iPad; both the iPad and the Chromebook can use web apps, but the Chromebook has no ability to run native software beyond what it ships with (like the first-gen iPhone).
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Composing a complex word or excel document. Serious coding. photo retouching. Any that requires multiple programs to be side by side.
It's not so much that they can't be done, it's that it's impractical and cumbersome to do for an extensive period of time. And if you're going to carry around a keyboard and mouse to do "real work" with the tablet, it kind of defeats part of the reason of having a very portable all-in-one computer.
Nintendo (Score:3)
Dude; Did you ever see Mario Paint for the Super Nintendo? This was a 16-bit PRODUCTIVITY APPLICATION. It turned a "game console" into a paint program and it was was even capable of doing animation. So, yes, a game console *is* a PC -- I mean, you do realize that in Japan, the Nintendo was sold as the Famicom, and even came with a keyboard, right?????
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What about NES, SNES, various Gameboys, N64, GameCube, DS?
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Uptake being higher WAS EXACTLY MY POINT you gamerloser. Apple sold 23M iPads last quarter. Did Nintendo ever sell that many devices in any one year?
http://twitter.yfrog.com/mn3oebp [yfrog.com]
Exactly how long until iOS (if you want to compare all devices) reaches 760M?
A year at most.
But, yeah, headshot or something. Spend another hour 'researching' more numbers.
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I responded to his post and its follow ons directly and with a like manner
Apparently Its ok to be a an apple fanboy and imply someone is a fool for thinking since ipads count for being a "top pc maker" so should consoles, and to use BS stats and snarky comments.
But to then prove them indelibly wrong, that's "trolling" and "flamebaiting". And I already know I have enemies on this place who will mod anything I say to hell, even if I made a working -insert miracle invention here-.
So that's Exhibit A in why sla
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Are smart phones PCs too?
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
damn straight smartphones are PCs. They just happen to be small-format computers with a cellular link chipset added in.
Now, just to make both you and me look like the idiots we are, can anyone come up with an accepted, standardized definition of what constitutes a "personal computer" ? I know I can't.
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A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator. This contrasted with the batch processing or time-sharing models which allowed larger, more expensive minicomputer and mainframe systems to be used by many people, usually at the same time. Large data processing systems require a full-time staff to operate efficiently.
Source:Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
By no means authoritative, but it seems like a reasonable definition to me. If you go by that, game consoles are definitely not personal computers. I could go either way on phones (and tablets which really are the exact same thing as a phone with a slightly bigger screen).
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It looks like all iOS devices are to a certain degree user programmable. How do you think all that software got written? All you need is Xcode and an Apple developer account - sure there is small cost but so what? You can even side-load apps onto iOS devices with this (or other ways. You might even be able to do more with a jailbroken device.
Now if you consider time as having a cost, you do have to invest time in learning either Java and/or obj-c.
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damn straight smartphones are PCs. They just happen to be small-format computers with a cellular link chipset added in.
Now, just to make both you and me look like the idiots we are, can anyone come up with an accepted, standardized definition of what constitutes a "personal computer" ? I know I can't.
If they are going to count a 7" android tablet as a "PC", I don't see how they can exclude a 5.5" Galaxy Note 2 cell phone when it runs the same operating system and has more processing power than a lot of tablets.
Re:So tablets at PCs now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe in the long run it'll be simpler to define a PC on the outcome of "Will it Blend."
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Nonsense. My jailbroke(en ??) iPad does more, much more than my first "personal computer" - a Morrow MicroDecision running CP/M. The developer's license is a bit of a non-sequitor. Computers have required specific development software / hardware bits for ages.
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Wrong.
An open architecture is one that you are free to design peripherals for, such as ISA, PCI, PCIe cards in the x86 architecture.
Sad day indeed.. (Score:3, Insightful)
the worst influence and bully in the tech industry hits the already much abused PC form factor.
Hmmm. (Score:5, Funny)
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Welcome to 2009.
Just a very few:
http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/218900171/10-app-store-rejects-scenes-from-apples-app-graveyard.htm [crn.com]
http://nearlybanned.com/ [nearlybanned.com]
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Wrong (Score:5, Funny)
McDonalds is the top PC vendor, if you include Big Macs.
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Also serves to make the point that being top doesn't make you the best, or even mediocre.
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McDonalds is the top PC vendor, if you include Big Macs.
Tablets can run applications, games, crunch numbers, communicate on a network. It may not be PC to call a tablet a PC, but equating the computational abilities of tablets and Big Macs is just stupid.
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McDonalds is the top PC vendor, if you include Big Macs.
I thought McDonald's was a server vendor, not a PC vendor. Billions and Billions Served. [brandi.org]
Stupid (Score:3, Funny)
Everyone knows Apple only sells Macs, not PCs.
Let's just set an official category definition... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll start. Here's how I use the words:
Personal Devices (Very limited, proprietary software)
-- Feature Phone
-- GPS Device
Personal Computing Devices (Limited, Consumption-based OSes, optional other-source software)
-- Tablets
-- Smartphones
Personal Computers (Traditional OSes like Windows, Linux, etc.; uses applications not truncated "apps")
-- Laptops/Notebooks
-- Netbooks
-- Desktop Computers
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's absurdly irrelevant. What if someone cuts your ethernet cable on your PC? What will you ssh to then? OH NO.
I can still write code on my iPad without SSHing somewhere. I just can't compile it without some special work.
But that's no different from a windows PC that you buy at the shop. It doesn't come with a compiler built in. These are all irrelevant distractions from the point.
Re:Let's just set an official category definition. (Score:4, Informative)
Desktop Computer (Score:2)
Run for the hills!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
The "tablet is not a PC" crowd will attack. And then the "tablet is a PC" crowd will counter-attack. Out of nowhere "some tablet are PC" crowd will join, but haven't shown their alliance. The "Apple is evil" along with the "Android/Chrome OS FTW" groups will join forces to fight everybody. Unfortunately, the hills may not protect us from the "Win8 will kill everyone".
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The "tablet is not a PC" crowd will attack. And then the "tablet is a PC" crowd will counter-attack. Out of nowhere "some tablet are PC" crowd will join, but haven't shown their alliance. The "Apple is evil" along with the "Android/Chrome OS FTW" groups will join forces to fight everybody. Unfortunately, the hills may not protect us from the "Win8 will kill everyone".
I suspect that whether people belong to the "tablet is a PC" or "tablet is not a PC" crowd coincides strongly with whether they want or don't want Apple to be the largest PC vendor.
In the end, PC vendors don't care how many PCs they sell, they care about how much stuff they sell. There's no price for being the leader, especially no price for setting or bending the rules so that you are the leader; but there's a price (hard cash) for selling stuff at a profit. Apple sells x Macs and y iPads, and whether s
Tablets and at the very least iPads are no PCs (Score:2, Interesting)
First of all in iPads you can not install your own software and you can only have crippled programming environments on it (some Basics e.g.) ... at least it is a "computing platform" on wich you indeed can compute and instal your own stuff and have an accessible file system.
So everything that defines a PC is impossible on an iPad.
Android might be looking better
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A Kindle? (Score:2)
A Kindle is a PC? Fuck this article. Astroturfing bullshit.
What PC should mean. (Score:3, Insightful)
The Mac existed as a "Personal Computer" for several years before it was capable of compiling its own programs but nobody had any trouble calling it a "PC".
We counted Apple IIs and Commodore 64s as PCs. These new systems are far more powerful and capable, why not call them PCs too?
Taking the Apple click-bait out of the equation, this sounds about right from a broad view: Tablets and "smartphones" as PCs from a decade ago or-so in terms of computing power with funny form-factors and interfaces.
To all the apparent fanboys who think that dedicated media consumption devices should be PCs just because they perform better than something from two decades ago, there is one very obvious distinction that you are all blatantly but unintentionally pointing out:
All of these devices were still the cutting edge technology of their time, especially as far as personal productivity and capability was concerned!
Sure the very original mac couldn't compile its own code. But it also beat the hell out of a typewriter.
And the iPad's A# processors destroy the original Cyrix, 3/486, Pentiums what have you! I'm surprised we even bothered with those processors at all, pfft!
Now crawl out of the reality-distortion fanboy bubble and look at today and what do you see? These devices are far from forefront of doing anything productive, have just good-enough specs for media consumption, and are a pain to use even if you look at the most modest metrics of productivity such as responding (no, not just reading) an email, or working with a spreadsheet.
Yes, personal computers did used mean something. And I believe they still should.
Imagine this... (Score:4, Interesting)
Take your smartphone, tablet, kindle, whatever... that device you don't consider to a be a "PC". Now stick it in a Time Machine and send it back to 1985. Show it to the editors of BYTE Magazine and ask them if it's a personal computer or not. They will tell you that it is.
Furthermore, your "device" in 1985 would be the most powerful PC there is, and actually qualify as a supercomputer, and be restricted from export from the USA because it would qualify as a threat to national security. Think about that.
Odd definitions indeed! (Score:3)
When the computer that you carry around in your pocket is not a "Personal Computer", but the computer whose permanent home is on the floor, it's called a "Personal Computer"???
Very odd!
Accept it folks, the world is changing. (Score:4, Insightful)
I think John Gruber's take [daringfireball.net] on David Pogue's Surface review [nytimes.com] nails it:
DP: "Everybody knows what a tablet is, right? It's a black touch-screen slab, like an iPad or an Android tablet. It doesn't run real Windows or Mac software -- it runs much simpler apps. It's not a real computer."
JG: "That's the same shortsighted opinion that command-line DOS advocates had of the Mac in the '80s. Anyone who thinks OS X and Windows PCs are "real" computers and that the iPad (and Android tablets) are anything less just isn't getting it."
My dad was one of those people. Back then (mid/late 80s) "computer" meant "I can write programs on it." Every computer today looks like the Macintosh did back then: windows, icons, WYSIWYG documents, etc. "Computer" came to mean "something you can use to create documents on and play games."
Remember, once upon a time, what we call "personal computers" themselves weren't considered "real" computers at all by those who were using "computers" (i.e, big iron in schools and businesses) at the time.
Q: Who's the #1 mainframe vendor today?
A: Who cares?
So just as "computer" once meant one thing and now refers to what we call PCs, the definition of "PC" will change over time too. It's a continuum, not black and white. Does a "PC" become not a PC when you take its keyboard off? Does a "tablet" become a "PC" when you add a keyboard? Is an iPad you can hold in one hand less personal, or less of a computer, than an old Kaypro luggable? [wikipedia.org]
I think I'll write a children's book: The Velveteen iPad (or How Tablets Become Real).
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If you are going to build your own tablet or smart phone I suspect you are going to want a 3d printer to make the case, which adds a significant amount to the up front costs.
Personally, I suspect one could make ones own smart phone for under 3k, but I haven't had the time to try. Would be a cool project though.
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I'll just keep building my own computers out of parts, like I've been doing for the last 30 years or so, and I can build several computers for what Apple would have me pay for a single one of theirs.
And more power to you, but for many, cost is not the sole deciding factor. /not a Mac owner
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In what universe does someone consider an iPad to be a personal computer?
Well, the Slashdot universe, for one. Well, at least they consider Android tablets and phones to be "Personal Computers"; so it should follow for (at least jailbroken) iPads/iPhones, too.
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We counted Apple IIs and Commodore 64s as PCs. These new systems are far more powerful and capable, why not call them PCs too?
Apple ]['s and Commodore 64's could be opened up, hacked, modded, and have 3rd party software installed without having to battle with the manufacturer.