computer science

Post-PC era

Post-PC era is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Post-PC era rather than just read about it. In short: The post-PC era was a market trend observed during the 2010s involving a decline in the sales of personal computers (PCs) in favor of post-PC devices, which include mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers as well as other mobile computers such as wearable and ubiquitous ones. These devices emphasize portability and connectivity, including the use of cloud-based services, more focused "apps" to perfor…

Key takeaways

Post-PC era belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Post-PC era to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Post-PC era from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The post-PC era was a market trend observed during the 2010s involving a decline in the sales of personal computers (PCs) in favor of post-PC devices, which include mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers as well as other mobile computers such as wearable and ubiquitous ones. These devices emphasize portability and connectivity, including the use of cloud-based services, more focused "apps" to perform tasks, and the ability to synchronize information between multiple devices seamlessly. The term was coined by MIT scientist David D. Clark. While both Microsoft's and Apple's former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Jobs also predicted a shift towards mobile devices as the primary method of computing, as a complement to the PC, Jobs popularized the term "post-PC" in 2007 (the launch of the first iPhone), and in 2011 launched iCloud, a service enabling Apple's product line to synchronize data with PCs through cloud services, freeing their iOS devices from dependency on a PC. Towards the middle of the 2010s, media sources began to question the existence of the post-PC era, at least as conventionally defined, stating that the so-called post-PC devices are just other portable forms of PCs joining traditional desktop PCs which still have their own operation areas and evolve. For example, gaming PCs are often considered still popular by many users.

History The term "post PC" was first used by David D. Clark in 1999; considering the future of computing to be "inevitably heterogeneous" and a "network full of services". Clark described a world where "everything" would be able to connect to the internet (including watches and toasters), computing would primarily be done through information appliances, and data would be stored by centralized hosting services instead of on physical disks. In a 1999 op-ed piece for Newsweek, Microsoft's CEO Bill Gates predicted a landscape he dubbed "PC Plus", where personal computers would be used alongside devices that would seamlessly synchronize data (such as calendar events, files, e-mails, etc.) from a PC for easier accessibility from where a user would need it. At Macworld Expo in 2001, not long after the dot-com bubble burst and amidst industry-wide angst over the future of the PC, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs announced a strategy seeing a PC (specifically, the Macintosh) serving as a "digital hub" for future mobile devices (such as its iPod MP3 player). Jobs stated that "We don't think the PC is dying at all. We don't think the PC is moving from the center at all. We think it's evolving. Just like it has since it was invented in 1975 and '76." At an interview alongside Bill Gates at the 5th All Things Digital conference in 2007, Steve Jobs further described a concept similar to Gates' "PC Plus" known as a "post-PC device"; "a category of devices that aren't as general purpose, that are really more focused on specific functions, whether they're phones or iPods or Zunes or what have you. And I think that category of devices is going to continue to be very innovative and we're going to see lots of them". Jobs felt that despite these developments, PCs would "continue to be with us and morph with us, whether it's a tablet or a notebook or, you know, a big curved desktop that you have at your house or whatever it might be." Gates suggested the prevalence of multiple form factors for such devices, including full-sized tablets, small phones, and 10-foot experiences for the living room. In June 2010, at the D8 conference, while being interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Jobs compared tablets and PCs to cars and trucks, saying "[PCs are] still going to be around. They're still going to have a lot of value. But they're going to be used by like one out of x people" while predicting that the vast majority of people will eventually use tablets as a primary computing device, analogous to the majority of people who drive cars. Directly conflicting Apple's previous "digital hub" strategy centered around the Macintosh PC, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's iCloud platform in 2011, which provides cloud storage for data that can be automatically synced between iOS products and PCs. iOS 5, released concurrently with iCloud, also removed the platform's dependency on a PC for first-time setup, syncing, and software updates. Jobs explained that iCloud would replace the PC as the "hub" for a user's devices with online servers—all of a user's devices, including a PC, would be able to automatically synchronize and access media and other files between platforms. Apple's current CEO Tim Cook continued to elaborate on the concept that a PC would no longer have to be the center of one's digital life, considering them to be a "device" on the same level as any portable device that a particular user owns. Cook also explained that mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones would be "more portable, more personal and dramatically easier to use than any PC has ever been". Technologically, Jason Perlow compared post-PC devices to the centralized mainframe-based computer systems of 1970s—but enhanced by the use of cloud computing to provide a more flexible and heterogeneous infrastructure for online services to run on, and the use of desktop virtualization to serve PC-only applications when needed as businesses shift towards apps. Matt Baxter-Reynolds felt that the main selling point of post-PC devices are their lack of functionality; believing that their more simplistic and secure design make them less intimidating to use for consumers in comparison to a traditional PC, their lack of keyboard (unlike laptops) contribute to better portability, and also noted their emphasis on connectivity as well. In 2014, Sony had sold off its PC division and VAIO brand. This, along with a drop in sales, led many to speculate the PC market was dying. However, the PC market did experience some periods of growth in the 2010s as well, leading many to claim the exact opposite. PC gaming grew 8% in 2012 alone and is expected to continue growing. In the second quarter of 2014, PC sales began to rise again. Growth of the PC compatible market was driven by strong sales of portable PCs in 2014.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Post-PC era

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Post-PC era claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Post-PC era before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Post-PC era ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Post-PC era

In research: Post-PC era appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Post-PC era in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Post-PC era is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Classes of computers, Market trends, Mobile computing, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Post-PC era outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Post-PC era in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Post-PC era means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Post-PC era out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Post-PC era in simple terms?

Why does Post-PC era matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Post-PC era?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Post-PC era.