Here’s an ironic video of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at the 2007 All Things Digital executive conference. Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal asks Steve and Bill what is the principle device of the future. Ironically, Bill describes the future as a range of devices including a tablet form factor, a mobile device, a home media center, and the traditional PC. Steve then says the future is the PC.
Fast forward to today, Microsoft is struggling produce the range of devices. Instead, Apple has now produced the iPhone, the iPad, the Macbook Pro, and to some extent, the Apple PC.
So here we are in 2010, what is the future of computing five years from now? This question is incredibly difficult to answer considering two CEO’s of the top technology companies struggle to see three years out in the future.
In watching the video, I think Bill has a much better vision of the future, one where we’re not reliant on the perfect device. Instead, we’ll use a range of devices depending on where and what we’re doing. On the go, we have a mobile device similar to the iPhone. Around the house and in casual settings, we’ll pull out our tablet, or iPad. On the go, and if we need to do intensive work, we’ll use our laptops. At home, we have projectors or walls of displays that run on servers/desktop PCs. Everything will be touch based. Even farther out, Bill says the future is 3D, or some sort of “Minority Report” style flicking screens.
Most importantly, the key to this future is the ability for the devices to recognize the user and customize the applications available. I’d like to see my iPhone display my top favorite and frequently used applications when I pick it up. When I hand it over to another user, it should recognize that user and change the interface and available applications based on preferences, and security settings. This means I should also be able to work on a document on my laptop, run out the door late to a meeting and have instant access to that document on my mobile device, and come home and view it projected on my wall in my home office.
Shockingly, this technology is available and we’ll be seeing it sooner than we expect.
Disclaimer: Walt Mossberg is a terrible interviewer and I want his job.