Beyond the PC

Getting computers into more hands over the past two decades spurred innovation: Early in Apple’s history, the late Steve Jobs, 56, encouraged company secretaries to train in computer skills and offer ideas, one Wall Street Journal columnist reminisced. Thus a desktop meeting scheduler was born. Merging smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices – all developed and promoted by Jobs – into mundane routines could unleash a post-PC wave of innovation that has far-reaching impact on the culture, notes Martin Giles, in an essay introducing a special report on technology trends for the Economist. Giles explains that consumers constantly rely on the internet for communications, research, shopping and entertainment. They welcome rather than fear new technology, and boundaries are blurred between personal and work life. A world of knowledge rests in one’s hands: Students instantly check and challenge a professor’s facts; clinicians and patients analyze data and develop theories; ecologists monitor changes in habitats minute by minute and detect a source; children’s science projects amaze experts. In every setting, mobile devices are revolutionizing routines. – YaleGlobal