Antoine,
<<Or will there be a continuing evolution into a pc/tv/vcr/house control center/etc.? >>
I really believe that over the next 10 years the desktop home pc will evolve into a very simple, unobtrusive, link to a network. The home unit will probably retain some amount of local storage for critical information (what Iomega calls "My Stuff"). As you have pointed out, 1 gig is a very large amount of storage capacity. 2 gigs is marginally sufficient right now. 20 gigs is one enormous mother of data.
The opportunities, margins, and growth all seem to be centered on connectivity and netcentric delivery of information and applications. Witness PeopleSoft going into the "portal" business.
I am a strong believer in logical allocation of resources. Therefore I believe that software, storage, communication providers, and infrastructure providers will target research and development for high growth, high margin, high valuation applications.
All of these seem to reside on the "network". None seem to reside on the desktop.
It is my view that the "network" will include entertainment content on demand. This would effectively eliminate the need for digital VCRs with large hard drives. Maybe a small one for personal video (kids, dogs, christmas) but a Zip drive or equivalent with removable storage would be adequate, IMO.
For disclosure, my long term investments (in this area) are in EMC, IBM, UIS, SEG.
My somewhat anti-desktop views are in the distinct minority here so take all with a large spoonful of salt,
Yogi
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