PC v Mac et. al. 30 years later...

What's become apparent since the release of the iPad is how little people put in to the systems and how much they take out.

Turns out 80% of 'computing' was reading and viewing and 20% was 'working' with data and spreadsheets and non-linear editing.

You don't need a keyboard, mouse and supercomputer to read, write and browse--you just need a convenient screen and good graphics.

You say you're a gamer? Get an XBox.

What brand should you buy? Whatever you can afford.

It's the Ford v Chevy debate all over.  There just isn't that much difference on the upside or down.  Buy what turns you on. It's a matter of taste and who you like to run with. Then spit on the competition.

I stand here with all of them arrayed in front of me. Mac, PC, Win 7, Win 8, iPhone, iPad, Nexus 7.  They are all cool gadgets and they all have peculiarities.  I get to have them all because I design and develop for them.

But what if I didn't.  What if I was just Joe Citizen and had to choose just one?

It would probably be the MS Surface or Acer W700 with Start8  running to skip the ColorTile/Metro UI.  That gets me a full computer within the form and function factor of an iPad 1 for ~a kilobuck.

Win8 Metro is great on a phone--better than iPhone--and not bad on a tablet but makes no sense on a desktop--touchscreen desktops make no sense on a desktop either, as mfgrs will admit in a few product cycles by quietly dropping them.

If one were looking ahead it would be wise to reflect on what BlackBerry chief Thorsten Heins recently said: slabs will be dead in half a decade.  That's not as looney as it first sounds.

By the time your current hardware fails--or gets too grunged-up to admit you own it--the devices themselves will be trending towards insignificance.  You'll no more think about 'computers' as things to be purchased and owned and carried than you do lunch.  The ability to compute, to do all the things we ascribe to the physical machines, will be ubiquitous.  That, after all, is what you pay for--other than the bling effect--the abilities the computing devices confer.

What will distinguish each of us is our subscription level and the powers that confers.  Maybe you get a little lapel button that marks you as an Apple Platinum Subscriber.  Google Glass will be built-in to your glasses, your contacts or you corneal implants.

Only poor people will own computers.