The next revolution will be shaped by new communications-rich workstations on our desktops and “information appliances” – inexpensive, portable high-performance information tools that will emerge from the collision of the computer and consumer electronics industries. Unlike PCs, these devices will be specialized tools for everyday tasks from calendar-keeping to communications. None will look remotely like a PC, and all will be cheap to the point of near-disposability.
Predictor: Saffo, Paul
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for The New York Times, futurist Paul Saffo writes about the future of the PC as an information appliance for networking and other uses: ”Just as it took a new generation of vehicles – automobiles – to deliver on a future envisioned by horseless carriage tinkerers, it will take new classes of machines to make extravagant PC-era visions come true. The next revolution will be shaped by new communications-rich workstations on our desktops and ‘information appliances’ – inexpensive, portable high-performance information tools that will emerge from the collision of the computer and consumer electronics industries. Unlike PCs, these devices will be specialized tools for everyday tasks from calendar-keeping to communications. None will look remotely like a PC, and all will be cheap to the point of near-disposability. In a few years, we will carry all kinds of information appliances in our pockets, purses, briefcases and cars. Others will turn up at home as entertainment and education appliances. Most will communicate with other devices.”
Biography:Paul Saffo was the director of a decades-old research and forecasting foundation called the Institute for the Future, located in Menlo Park, Calif., in the 1990s. This Institute was a non-profit think tank that consulted for a large number of businesses and government entities, including telecommunications and consumer companies. (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: October 13, 1991
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Internet Appliances
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: Farewell, PC – What’s Next?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.saffo.org/farewellpc.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stotler, Larry