The PC is not dead, long live the PC

Microsoft's corporate vice president of Corporate Communications believes the PC era is still upon us, but present in different ways.

Speaking at the All Things Digital conference, Frank X. Shaw responded to Apple CEO Tim Cook's thoughts of what it means to be in a "post PC" era, claiming the PC is still relevant in today's changing market.

"On one hand, looking around the conference, there were iPads and other tablets as far as the eye could see," he said.

"On the other hand, (as I noted in a tweet), most of the people around me were using their iPads exactly as they would a laptop – physical keyboard attached, typing away, connected to a network of some kind, creating a document or tweet or blog or article.

"In that context, it’s hard to distinguish between a tablet and a notebook or laptop. The form factors are different, but let’s be clear, each is a PC."

Believing that the industry is hung up on semantics, Shaw lent his support to the PC, claiming it is actually blossoming.

"I actually think the PC is alive and well and thriving, it just comes in tons of different form factors," he says.

"Many of those form factors are more mobile, and look different from the traditional desktop PC, but the same core idea drives it – personal in nature, used for work and for play, runs applications, connected to a network… etc.

"No matter what label you put on them, they are personal computing devices.

"Today, Sheryl Sandberg made a similar point when she noted that she had a computer in her pocket with more power than the computer that brought Apollo to the moon. And of course it was a phone."

Recent claims by research group IDC that PC sales are plummeting due to Microsoft's Windows 8 argues such claims.

And while Shaw didn't get into the business of PC sales or Windows, he offered an insight into the future thinking of the software giant.

"When you strip away all the post-PC rhetoric, maybe we’re all saying the same thing – the future is about killer devices connected to amazing cloud services," he says.

"That’s the future Microsoft is embracing."

Are PCs alive and kicking but just in different forms? Tell us your thoughts below