handheld learning
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No future for desktop and laptop PCs?
According to Graham Brown-Martin, founder of UK-based Handheld Learning Ltd., the PC as we know it will be extinct by 2010. Its replacement? The portable consumer devices you use today, connected to server farms where all of your personal media can be accessed. At this week's Interactive Entertainment Festival in Edinburgh, Brown-Martin commented, "I've spent quite a lot of time talking to computer manufacturers and they are seeing more value in selling servers that connect to consumer electronic devices such as the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. They see this as the food chain, rather than lots of desks with computers on them."Oracle's Larry Ellison made a similar prediction a decade go when the Network Computer was thought to be the eventual successor to the PC. The thin client NC had no secondary storage and required constant network access to application and data servers. Brown-Martin believes this concept is the path to true mobility: "Mobility isn't just about little devices – it's about the user being mobile and having all their stuff in one location, on a hard-disk farm."Do you agree? What impact would such a paradigm shift have on the gaming industry, and how comfortable would you feel if all of your game data and personal media were stored remotely?
