The rise of the personal appliance era

The personal computer (PC) revolution began in the 1970s. It altered our lives. None of us ever wanted a mainframe or mini-computer in our houses but a PC was different. First it changed how we wrote, with rudimentary word processors, like WordStar, and how we calculated, with the early spreadsheet programs like VisiCalc. PCs changed how we communicated, as they became connected, first by telephone networks like CompuServe and later on the Internet. Telephone calls and written mail gave way to email, instant messaging, chat, and VoIP (e.g. Skype). The Internet would not have been possible without PCs. Today, we use still and video cameras differently than in pre-PC days. We rarely print photos, instead we share them digitally. We listen to music and watch Internet-streamed video that would have not been possible without PCs.

I could go on at length comparing the pre-PC and post-PC periods, but this article is about the next era, an evolution more than a revolution—the rise of the personal appliance (PA). The word appliance is defined as, “A device that is very useful for a particular job.” These are devices like smartphones—Android cellphones, BlackBerrys, iPhones—and tablet PAs, i.e., iPads. Today the tablet-form PA is only available from Apple since there are not yet any iPad competitors. This will change before year-end. Soon there will be lots of alternatives to the iPad. Many of these will be Android devices. HP is supposedly developing a webOS-based tablet since their recent acquisition of Palm, and Microsoft has stated that its equipment partners will have Windows 7 tablets available soon.

What differentiates the PC and the PA? PC devices are general purpose. They can do almost anything. Personal appliances cannot. PA devices are limited in function and feature set. They do a few things very well, some things okay, some things poorly, and some things not at all. For example, you can’t print from an iPad. PAs are primarily communications or consumption devices. They are not designed for producing. I can imagine trying to compose this article on an iPad or a smartphone. I would not want to.

Personal appliances appeal to the general population. PCs, including Macs, are frightfully complex devices. It is amazing to me that people put up with this complexity so that they can surf the Internet and read email. The iPad does away with that complexity. There is only one physical button for navigating the user interface (UI). Contrast that with a PC that has special navigation keys on the keyboard and pointing devices like a mouse or touchpad. Smartphones and the iPad UIs are designed for one finger navigation. Your other nine fingers are superfluous.

One disadvantage to PAs is that we will end up collecting a lot of them. PAs, unlike PCs, are rarely shared. We will end up with cellphones and PA tablets. You may also own a gaming device like the PSP (PlayStation Portable). Many of you have ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle. And you may still want a media player device like an iPod. All these devices come with power adapters and cables to connect them to our PCs. Our future is one of even greater technology clutter than today, more unidentifiable cables and power adapters, and discarded out-of-date PAs.

Curiously, we are not happy with our devices. We complain about their shortcomings. We forget how fantastic they are and all the marvelous things they do. Remember using a rotary phone? Today I can tell my cell phone to, “Phone home.” I don’t even have to remember the phone number. That is real convenience. Incidentally, convenience is a synonym for appliance.