Is the PC dead?

I've seen a lot of news stories and opinion articles lately that say the PC industry is dying. I think because I program on PCs these types of articles rub me the wrong way. Every article like this I've seen, when you read the article in detail it paints a different picture. In every case the PC industry is GROWING year over year. So how do they claim the PC industry is dying? Well their claims are based on the fact that the PC industry isn't growing as fast as it once was, so they are drawing the conclusion that if this continues the PC industry will start to decline. Well no one can predict the future. Certainly the global economy is weak right now, so that could easily explain the slower PC industry growth.

These articles always go on to say that most users are buying tablets and smartphones, and that these devices will eventually replace the PC. I personally find that hard to believe. I would say a desktop/laptop computer has two main uses - leisure and work. Leisure would be activities like playing games, watching videos, surfing the web, etc. I will agree that tablets and smartphones can do these leisure activities just as well as a desktop/laptop computer if not better. And they are portable so you can do it anywhere.

But what about "work." This would be tasks like writing documents, editing files, programming, accounting, etc. This is where tablets and smartphones I think will always fall short. Do you really want to write a 20 page paper on a 7" screen using the keyboard on the screen? Think about it another way. Businesses throughout the world buy millions of desktop/laptop computers for their employees to use. They are far and away the largest consumer of computers, far more than home users. I think that tasks people do on a work computer would not translate well to a tablet/smartphone. So as long as businesses need computers, the industry will continue to grow.

If I had to make a prediction here it would be this. Tablets and smartphones will continue to gain in popularity, especially with home users, and most home users will still buy a computer for home user although these numbers will decline slightly. Finally, I predict that businesses will continue to need mass quantities of computers.