Future desktop?

Forbes run a piece on android on the desktop today, mainly focusing on the challenges for Microsoft in relation to this. The questions raised are timely and apt. Computing infrastructure in all ways will continue to evolve, and those who do not adapt will loose.

There is however one assumption in the article that I like to question. It seems to be an underlying assumption that someone, either Google or someone else, will have to make a special desktop version of Android to challenge Microsoft on their home turf. Looking at how we increasingly spend time with phones and tablets today, and even get similar systems on TVs and other kind of appliances, I am not sure this is a valid assumption. Even advanced users like myself already have some apps that we prefer to use on tablets—not only for consuming content, but for creating as well.  For those tasks we already have turned away from desktop systems.

I think it is much more likely that devices and operating systems evolve in such a way that consumers gradually use desktop systems less because the tablet, phone, and other system are simply easier to use and at hand. No one will need to create a system for the kind of devices people run Microsoft OS on today, because most consumers will not use those kind of devices. That's my prediction. It's not like people turn away from one thing to use the other. It's much more likely that we add new kinds of devices to our set of tools, and one day just don't see the need for the old tool anymore.