Or a panel on your refrigerator. Or a screen phone clipped to your belt. Or maybe all those things at once, networked to each other and to a megaserver somewhere in the cybersphere. Yet for all the claims and predictions, the poor PC continues to fend off the Grim Reaper. Flexibility, for openers.
Nothing can match the PC's adaptability.
Turns out that in a world where devices proliferate, the PC is useful as a humble peripheral to all of them. Until every digital device comes with its own Internet address and access to fast connections, the PC's speed and storage remain unbeatable. And PCs keep getting cheaper and faster. Omit a major component in the interest of price, as Net appliances do by eliminating the hard disk, and usability suffers. That's one reason the Palm, which has both, is so popular.