Office by Alex Penny
What I see happening with the introduction of the iPad is not the death of the personal computer, but a clear distinction being made between machines used primarily for creating content and those used to consume it. The biggest problem with this first gen iPad is that you still need a computer to do certain things with it (upgrading firmware/OS and backing it up for example) I did read that there will be an adapter to download pics from your camera directly to it, though. That’s a big plus.
On a related note, the idea that most apps will be web based in five years ignores apps used for creating serious content. Are you really going to create web sites and software on a web app? Are you going to do serious photo editing on a web app? And let’s not talk about video. The idea of only web based apps also sucks because that means either ad-supported apps like Google (ugh) or subscription services like Basecamp. Subscriptions are a better option IMHO, but those bills would add up really fast.
The future of cloud computing will look a lot like Dropbox. Your files on the cloud, there to retrieve when you accidentally delete or overwrite them, but also stored on your FAST SSD on the computers and devices you use on a regular basis.
