What do the average home computer family use their home computer for?
Not really all that much in reality.
And that is probably about it. Can you think of anything else?
- The Internet
- Some gaming
- Office work (word processing, children's homework)
- Downloading music
- Managing music with an MP3 player
- Simple digital photo editing, printing and saving to disc
- Single Home camcorder video editing and burning to DVD
The question is, will they actually need a home computer for any of these tasks in the future? I personally don't think so.
In another thread it was stated:
My answer is, no there will not need to be the need to create an alternative competing format against the PC because soon there will not be a need for a PC in most average family homes.The trouble is, can you really create a home computer to compete against the PC? I don't think you can. Look at the only alternative and how much that struggles to gain market share. Any new machine would never get off the ground. And the home console market is pretty much sewn up with the big three of Sony, MS and Nintendo.
Consider the evolution of consoles and how it will continue into the next generation with PS4 and whatever the next Xbox will be. The current PS3 and Xbox 360, and to a slightly lessor extent the Wii, have moved from just being gaming platforms to becoming full multimedia systems, with their front ends also moving away from just being a control system to manage game saves and other gaming features and adding additions for multimedia video and audio playback as well as streaming, online interaction within their own internet and social network systems.
Much of the future of computing is going to be with these two social and group collaboration features of Web2 and less about single standalone computers in the home.
In addition the consoles are now starting to be able to handle home movie files from camcorders and still photos from digital cameras which removes the need by many users to even need to use a PC for this. If it becomes possible for printers to work off of consoles via USB then that is another part removed from the need for a PC.
With these features starting to be offered by the current consoles (and even more so in the future) and online gaming also becoming a key part of many console releases, the only unique features this leaves the PC as having any kind of role in the average home will be for word processing and other office documents.
You could argue that a proper PC will still always offer far more advanced image editing from digital camera images and true video editing for home movies, plus better control and management for music. But the needs of most home computer users are not that advanced; what they want and need to do with a video, image or audio file is normally quite basic and consoles will give them these features and abilities in a very easy to use way, without the need for a PC. The average home user wants to get a task completed with the minimum of fuss and least number steps required.
For example, plug their MP3 player in, insert a CD in the systems drive, and convert and move the files to the MP3 player on the fly. Or plug the MP3 player in, connect to an online music store and download the music to the player. Once consoles can do this why would they need a PC?
In addition, online office packages such as Google's Docs and Zoho are now starting to gather steam and take off. With consoles offering broadband internet access such services are accessible. The files for these applications are stored on the server rather than locally and again I see this as the future for the majority of home users and even businesses. Why worry about where a file is or if you have it backed up to your pen drive when it is on the online word processor you have been using. You can log in from anywhere you like to access the files, edit them, print them out etc... And with a console and a wireless USB keyboard does the average home user need anything more?
Also consoles running in HD will allow for a practical resolution on the TV for such file editing, unlike the old TV standards with were never that suitable.
I can also see live server document editing becoming a part of school work in the future. At present there are still using relating to IT and files in schools. Steve could probably back this up. You need to work on a document both a school and at home for your homework. If the files were all stored on a central school server with the office applications being web based then each student would not need to carry any form of storage with them to transport files, and any issues with application availability for editing their work would also be made redundant as any console system with internet access could log into the web applications, load their files from the school server, edit them, save them, and then access them the next day from work to continue. This would also give live access to the files from teachers for instant live marking and comments. Have the school system even considered this yet? Not sure. Maybe I should do some digging and if they haven't I could market the idea to them!
For office workers this server side file hosting and live web editing could and should also become part of the future and I believe it eventually will sooner rather than later. These ideas and technologies are in reality part of what the internet truly is about.
I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on all of my ideas.