Chris Taylor is a long-time voice for PC gamers. This article carries about as much insight as the a Sony game developer saying that Playstation is better than Xbox, or someone who sells parts to Ford saying that the F-150 is a better truck than the Dodge Ram. Of course they are going to say that. They may certainly believe it to their core, but they also have a vested interest in the advocacy they are spouting.
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In this modern Future World of PCs, tablets, smart phones, and other Swiss army knives of technological prowess, is there still room for single-purpose devices?
Of course there is. In many, many cases the specialized device performs its task better than the generalized device. As long as it is priced appropriately, it can and should sell well. Not everyone
wants an iPad, some people just want to read a frickin eBook (in the sun). The trouble comes when those specialty devices cost more than they should...the closer you get to the price point of the general device, the more attractive its price-to-feature balance becomes.
But a major issue with Chris's argument here is claiming that consoles are single-function devices. That's just not true anymore...at least technically. Even the PS2 was used as a DVD player, so even then a console was not a single-function device. Today, I use my PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and Netflix terminal
exclusively...I play
no games at all on it. Once Microsoft finishes the Skype acquisition and works that into Live (especially coupled with Kinect), goodness...the Xbox could be less about gaming than it is basic interaction with your social network (meaning family and friends, not the random Live or Facebook "friends" that are actually total strangers.)
Here's the actual nugget of truth that this article completely ignores: the
cable box is on the verge of being a dead platform, not game consoles. Bill Gates' 1990's vision of replacing the cable box with his own set top box is becoming more and more possible. In ten years, will anyone still
need cable? ("Need", not "want".) If Netflix and its competition provides access to all of the "television content" we need, in an on-demand fashion, you won't
need a cable box anymore. That is the true single-function device (decoding encrypted TV streams served according to the cable company's time schedule and agenda, not the content consumer's) that can, and will, be replaced by what we call "game consoles" today.
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Originally Posted by Artikbot;13675050
Consoles are a closed platfom, PC is an open platform.
Open paltforms never die.
period.
Um...audio cassettes? Video tapes? Cripes, even paper books (outsold by eBooks this year for the first time, according to a recent article that I read on MSN, I think).
Never say never. Everything can "die" if something better comes along.
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Originally Posted by Mootsfox;13673960
More and more we want our devices to do everything. Specialization will not be around forever. Consoles have a limited life. Computers in one form or other will last far longer.
Depends on what you are classifying as a "computer", I guess.
I truly believe than in 10 years time, Average Joe will no longer be buying boxy desktop PCs. They just don't need them, and there is just no reason to be anchored to a desk anymore. Tablets will continue to take over the world...no one who really only surfs the web and does e-mail/social networking will have a reason to use anything else. Laptops will be for the people who can't let go. And PCs will be for us...people who like to build their own hot rods.
But like I said, specialization will never fully go away. We already have computers in our card, refridgerators, geez pretty much everything, right? Do I want my refridgerator to cost an extra $300 because there is a full-blown PC-like computer ot tablet built in, or do I want the much cheaper specialized hardware that does only what it needs to do? I don't think I need to play Angry Birds on my fridge, so I vote for el cheapo specialized model.
