PCs being pushed aside in Japan

[Tivon]

"The PC's role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-size computers, advanced Internet-connected game consoles, and digital video recorders with terabytes of memory.

Japan's PC market is already shrinking, leading analysts to wonder whether Japan will become the first major market to see a decline in personal computer use some 25 years after it revolutionized household electronics — and whether this could be the picture of things to come in other countries." ~<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071104/ap_on_hi_te/bye_bye_pcs;_ylt=AiTQLUatXatjEqSwFD9YrSis0NUE">news.yahoo.com</a>

What are your thoughts on this topic?

[Empty_Quarter]

Well, I knew that japan was never into PCs from the first place. To begin with, they have a very tiny aftermarket custom pc market. There were a couple of great japanese pc parts makers (e.g. like soldams cases, which IMO are the best cases ever made), but they all ended up going bankrupt or out of business.

It is understandable in japan where technology is what the country is about. They are the leaders in technology in just about every aspect. Their PDAs/cell phones does have everything you could possibly want a PC to do, at that point why would PCs be useful?

Would we be using PCs if a cell phone with a 7" screen can play crysis at max? No? What if you could plug in the cell phone to a 60" in TV and still play at max? :P

I wish I were in japan :(

[Race234]

to be honest it does make sense, Everytime I visited Japan, it was more of a go out and have fun kind of thing, not much of a stay in-doors and play on a computer and as for console gaming a lot of times thats had game rooms that they go and visit to play at, only the otakus stayed at home and well in japan to be an otaku is a far far worse thing then to be called that here in the states lol.

[nilzxx]

I can see how that's true. In north america PCs are one of the most important things, but in Japan there are so many other device.

[robodude666]

Kind of sucks to hear, but what Empty and Race stated is true. All of the major hardware companies are either in the states or Taiwan though. We might of been further ahead if Japan was more involved in it though. Hmmmm...

[egarrard]

What are your thoughts on this topic?I've still got to be able to read the screen for it to be productive. Cellphones don't make the grade. :Nope

[Tivon]

I've still got to be able to read the screen for it to be productive. Cellphones don't make the grade. :Nope

Hmm, maybe they use some sort of Ninja enlarging LCD's? :Blah

[Nodspy]

Bionic eyes..... shhhh I didnt say anything.

[Race234]

actually the phones that are exclusive to Japan are NUTS, blow anything that we have here away, thats for sure and soo fast, they can stream live video through their cellphones and so forth, its sooo nice.

[tkelito]

Sadly our nation lacks far behind in technology, just look at our high speed internet infrastructure.. we are far from the top.

[Nodspy]

Because of money mongering sob companies like verizon, comcast, and at&t. This is why I'm moving to japan.

[Tivon]

Ummm.. Japan is much smaller, that helps to condense the technology integration. Much larger lands are still trying to get wired up for Internet access. Problem in America is about doing everything cheap as possible and making lots of money. I wish that mind set would change and focus on making things built solid and sturdy and without charging an arm or a leg to do it. If you want anything cool here you need to pay a lot of money. Best doctors.... money... best whatever... money.

[slugbug]

Another reason why I hate cell phones :negative

[Tivon]

Another reason why I hate cell phones :negative

I think in the future the concept of Cell Phone will change into some else that is more of an All-In-One device. Probably being able to talk with the device is only one part and not the cadre to the baseline fundamentals of the units. I can see CPR, X-Ray, Laser, GPS, Camouflage.. ect.. Millions of things packed into one tiny hand held device.

[Nodspy]

I want it integrated into my body. That be cool. While I'm at it I also want a robot arm with a spartan laser cannon hidden inside.