End of the PC Era?

Trend: High-end handheld computing devices no longer require using a desktop PC to upload and download information.

Astute techology analyst Om Malik notes the significance of Apple Computer changing its name to Apple.

Link: GigaOM » iPhone and the End of PC Era

From Steve Jobs iPhone announcement:

“From this day forward we’re going to be known as Apple, Inc. We’ve dropped the computer from our name.” And then he quoted ice skating legend Wayne Gretzky. “‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been.’ That’s what we try to do at Apple.”

Om Malik writes in his blog:

That also might be the epitaph of the PC era. And it is sweet irony that the company that sparked off the desktop computing revolution is the one announcing its passing.

Dropping Computer from its name is a sure sign that Apple, from this point forward, is a consumer electronics company, a mobile handset maker - one that also makes computer hardware and software as well.

Like the iPod, the iPhone may feed off the computer, but it can live peacefully without any dependence on a desktop. A Wi-Fi enabled device, it is should ideally be capable enough to do direct downloads from the iTunes store, no desktop necessary. (Time magazine says it is not possible, so who knows!⁸)

Apple is making the phone do all things a computer does – surf, email, browse, iChat, music and watch videos.