by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 25, 2010

Not all that many years ago the idea of a Desktop computer was science fiction, and not even the realistic science fiction. It was put along side robots and space travel as something that might some day be possible. Then the age of the microcircut appeared and not only did computers shrink enough that they wouldn't take an entire room in your house but part of one desk. And yet while this technology has changed the world it is no longer the only choice. With laptops, tablets, computers in our pockets and even on the TV the Desktop computer is beginning to show its age.

The first major weakness of the computer is in its name. The Desktop computer is connected to a single location. You do not have the mobility of any of those other devices. In fact the desire for mobility has become so great that even the laptop has become too big for many people and devices that you can keep in your pocket are growing in popularity. As computers are able to more fully interact with the environment through cameras and voice recognition among other technologies this weakness is likely to become even more of a problem.

The next of the weaknesses is tied to the first but not entirely the same. That is the monitor. There are two problems with the average computer monitor, the first of these is that it is stationary. This means that even though many of these devices have considerably smaller screens they can be held closer to your face so that they seem bigger. The second is the size itself. These monitors can now be pretty big, but they still remain designed for a person sitting in a very precise location when compared to the only other screen you are likely to have in your house the TV.

The final difficulty for the Desktop is the most difficult for it to overcome in many ways and that is that it is associated with a number of negative feelings for many people. For some that is the idea that you use it for work while for others it is complexity. There are a number of these and the problem with all of them is that they are not fun. This means that while the desktop computer is not really going away it is in many ways disappearing as it is hidden in different types of devices which do the same general things.

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