[ibheath]

If you factor in iPads and Android tablets, the traditional PC IS on its way out. I have an android based phone, and I do most of my surfing and email from it. Once the tablet market matures a little, I will only be using my laptop for heavy computing, like gaming. I currently use google docs on my smartphone to do the little editing I need for work. With a tablet, I will be able to almost everything I do now.

as for the DVD work, with flash memory, DVDs are going out too. I get irritated daily by the DVD drive on my laptop, cause I will accidentally hit the button and open it. I cannot remember the last time I used it. I purchase and download my software via the web. I buy my music as digital files on the web. I plug my smartphone jack into the AUX input on my car and home stereo to listen to music or radio.

PCs will always be around, but for most people, mobile computing will replace their need for a computer.

[discostu]

The big problem anything replacing PCs is that small form factors will always be more expensive to get equal power to large form factors. You can get a PC to do all that you outlined for about half the price of tablet. For anybody that isn’t going to be mobile, which is most of the business market, the PC will continue for a long time just because of that computing power to dollar ratio that the larger form factor allows.