Computers look a lot different than they did in the past, and the improvements haven’t just arrived in the form of color formats, either. Computers of the first several generations that saw widespread use looked almost as boxy as the cars of that, and the prior, era. They were big, bulky, unstreamlined, and similar to Henry Ford’s proclamation about the first mass-produced automobiles: They came in any color, as long as that color was black. (Except in the case of the early consumer-grade computers, they were off-white or beige.) Simply put, they were ugly. And they took up almost as much space as furniture. They were as stationary as most furniture too, only being moved for dusting or when the user spilled coffee near the machine.
That’s all changed. It’s anticipated that within three years, that version of the desktop will no longer be available. It is already regarded as obsolete by those in the know. And what are those people using? They have portable devices that are constantly connected to the Internet. Smartphones are prevalent, but their small size does limit their usefulness as an all-day entertainment device. But the theme is there–smaller, sleeker, and more colorful computers. All of these have touch-sensitive cases that allow fingertip communication with the device. IPads and other tablets are gaining popularity, and are even challenging the ultimate portable workhorse, the laptop computer.
While it may be as hard to envision the present era of laptop computers disappearing as it was to picture the boxy desktop falling out of favor, every generation’s must-have item eventually heads for the landfill. There’s always a sleeker model coming down the pipe, and in the case of the computer, newer versions have already arrived. More powerful than their predecessors while taking up less space, the incoming generation of machines will seem pretty hip for a while, at least until the next generation of computers are wired into the human body!