I’ve just ordered a fully tricked-out iMac 5k. It’s going to be awesome. It’s quite pricey, but it’s a business purchase and I think I’ll get five years out of it.
But it just dawned on me that it actually may be the last Mac I ever buy.
By 2020, it’s entirely conceivable that iOS is the dominant Apple platform, and that the notion of an immovable ‘desktop’ or a ‘laptop’ will be redundant given the power of even the most flimsy device.
It’s also quite believable that power apps such as Photoshop, Lightroom and the like will have come along such that they work perfectly well on the descendents of the iPhone/iPad or have certainly been replaced by apps that do.
I recently bought an iPad Mini, thinking I could use it for reading and light work. No one is more surprised than me that it’s already become my default daily carry for my consulting business. My Macbook Air and its heavy power supply are left at home.
The comparison that iPad can’t do this or that as well as a pc/Mac is misleading and baggage from a dusty generation. The comparison doesn’t matter. Today’s under 20s won’t care.
It seems to me that computing will become ever more modular, pervasive and… just simpler. As others have noted, yes PCs are better for things like typing up long reports – but why are you writing those reports at all when everyone can have real-time dashboards on their phone?
So, as it may be the last one I ever buy, I plan to really cherish that new iMac.