25 years ago, in August 1981, IBM released the IBM-PC -- a runaway success that changed and still changes the world unlike few other inventions. Build on open standards with off-the-shelf components (in a very un-IBM manner), the IBM-PC soon brought the promise of affordable computing, at home and at the workplace, to many people around the globe.
Yet, the nature of the PC has changed dramatically over the last 10 years: With the advent of the Internet, the PC has become much more of a communication device rather than a computing device.
Now, is the PC optimized as a communication device? Not really - it's getting better, but it's still lagging far behind the cellphone, which is much more a communication platform to young people and in emerging markets, than the PC is.
My expectations are that there will be more convergence of mobile PCs and cellphones going forward. Cellphones will have advanced comupting (and storage facilities - yes: db4o!), while most computers will become more and more mobile, wireless, portable.
I am excited to work at this convergence frontier with many cutting edge companies, who build the platforms and software stacks for these increasingly mobile and (partially) connected devices.