What is a 'Personal Computer?' ( January 31st 2012 )

On Monday, Canalys stated that, if you count Tablets as PCs, Apple has become the largest client-PC manufacturer. This, when it hit the blogosphere, caused the entirely predictable Nerd-rage you'd expect. From the depths of "I'm too emotionally invested in this" came the "The iPad is not a f***ing PC!" comments. From mayfly memories came comments like "Well seeing as iPads don't have Flash, USB ports, built in DVD players, real keyboards, things like Microsoft Word, hmmmm yeaaaaa, they totally count as PCs..."

It's so funny it kind of hurts.

First off, to that last guy... You know what this is? It's a PC that doesn't run Flash, have USB ports, and has no built in DVD player. It has a real keyboard, I'll give you that. Secondly, none of those things seem to actually define what a 'Personal Computer' is.

Merriam Webster defines a 'personal computer' as "a general-purpose computer equipped with a microprocessor and designed to run especially commercial software (as a word processor or Internet browser) for an individual user." Now that I've thoroughly confused you, let's actually talk about this. While the iPad is more restricted and limited than a Windows, Mac or Linux machine, it still is (by all formal definitions) a Personal Computer. It's a different form factor than desktops and laptops, but it's still a device that runs many kinds of software to perform virtually every kind of function.

And before someone starts listing the limits of iOS as an operating system, let me remind you that iOS has more in common with a modern desktop operating system than what any of my 386es are running. Having an exclusive source of software does not make it less of a PC.

The only thing an iOS device cannot do that other PCs can is author its own software. It's true, you can't code an iPad app on an iPad. But is that really a requirement of a "client-PC?" I don't think it is, especially when you consider that the vast majority of PCs will never be used to author a single piece of software.

Finally, you may say "The only difference between my smart phone and an iPad is screen size -- do you consider that a Personal Computer?" Well, actually, kind of - yeah. The very fact that we keep calling smartphones "phones" is kind of silly, and only done so out of habit. Should we include smartphones in the client-PC metric? That's a good question.

I honestly haven't made up my mind on the subject. If we include tablets in "PC" manufacturing, maybe we should -- the smartphone is essentially a pocket computer. Even the devices from ten years ago are faster computers than my first "PC." On the other hand, while an iPad makes a decent laptop replacement, I wouldn't say the same over the exact same hardware in an iPhone.

In the end, I think it's time we started grouping them all together for mass metrics, but separating by category -- including splitting laptops from desktops. Pardon the pun, but while we're comparing apples to oranges, can we at least all agree they're all fruit?

(View Comments)