Last March, when the iPad 2 was released, Steve Jobs described it as a Post PC device. Rather scathingly I could not agree to that as under iOS4 you still needed to activate it using iTunes and a PC of Windows or OSX flavours. The promise was that once iOS5 was available, this would be solved and the iPad would be standalone and be truly a Post PC device.
Well iOS5 came along and it is true that you can activate the device without a PC and make use of iCloud to backup your content and do most things without a PC, but if you do not have a PC then you have lost much functionality for managing your content. Primarily the iPad (or iPhone for that matter) needs to connect to a PC over WiFi to sync content, particularly Podcast audio or video content, where you have to go and get it rather than have it delivered. Since last March, I have moved on Android devices to get that standalone device, and I can say I have pretty much achieved it as I have phone and tablet devices which auto subscribe to audio and video feeds, and give me direct access to home content via DLNA and access to files via online file stores such as Dropbox or Box. So Android of any sort above 2.3 gives you that PC-less experience that was so pushed last March by Apple and they have not yet succeeded in delivering.
I also have to say, I don’t think this sort of device is Post PC in the truest sense of the term – PC stands for Personal Computer. It has become a way of describing a device with a keyboard, a screen and a central processing box. I think the term has to be taken back to its original meaning - a personal computer. In that context, my Smartphone is a PC device… my Tablet is a PC device… my Laptop is a PC device. Post PC devices are actually PC devices where PC stands for a personal computer device and they are all PCs.
