Another CEO's views on PCs
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HP's Platt: PCs are "pretty crude"
By Tim Clark and Brooke Crothers Staff Writers, CNET News.com
December 2, 1998, 6:35 p.m. PT
SAN FRANCISCO--The head of one of the largest personal
computer companies in the world, Hewlett-Packard CEO
Lewis Platt, today talked about the obsolescence of the PC.
"I'm not predicting the demise of the PC, but the PC is a pretty
crude device, hard to use, and so 'general purpose' that very
few of us use more than five percent of its capability," the
Hewlett-Packard executive told a Business Week conference here.
"You'd be better off with an appliance that is cheaper, smaller,
and does the special-purpose job [that you're] doing," he said.
Platt's comments are more evidence that computer companies
are seriously rethinking the utility of this aging paradigm. His
disclaimer notwithstanding, all of the largest PC vendors are all
anticipating significant changes in personal computing as users
have known it for more than a decade.
Rod Schrock, senior vice president in charge of Compaq's
consumer products division, also indicated that he sees the
writing on the wall in discussions with CNET News.com at the
Comdex computer show. Compaq is now looking at a number
of specialized devices, he said, alluding to one kitchen
appliance that could "handle personal finances, home
shopping, and home video and voice mail." Prices would range
from about $200 to below $1,000, he estimated.
"You're going to see a whole lot of experimentation," Schrock
added.
Along with Dell, Compaq further envisions more specialized
computer models, targeted at discrete markets. For instance,
both have recently begun marketing some PC models
essentially as feature-rich Internet terminals.
Platt's comments came after he painted an environment of
"information utilities" in which people and companies will pay
for data and services as needed, saying that a variety of digital
devices could be used to access these information services.
He showed a handheld scanner called "CapShare," which he
said can scan up to 50 pages and then move that information
into any device that is infrared transfer-enabled.
"This can literally squirt the data into a phone or printer so you
can fax or email a colleague and embed an image in it," he
said.
"We think this is a kind of appliance that will become more
popular," he continued. "Just as we have hundreds of
specific-purpose electrical appliances in the world today, we
will have hundreds of these appliances.
"You don't hear people complaining about lots of electrical
appliances--I think we're headed toward that world [for digital
appliances]," he said.
HP will supply processors to power the appliances but also the
computers on the back end to host those services, Platt said.
Later, the company will have the opportunity to build appliances
to plug into the new information utilities.
"We see the Internet and Web as the first step toward an
information utility or pervasive computing," Platt concluded.
"It will be device-, location-, and user-independent. We think it's
going to do for services--billing and commerce and others--what
the Web has already done for data: Provide universal access." |
