(Chinese Version)

Over the past two years, mobile Internet boomed and even dominated the Internet world. Lots of insiders even predicted that PCs would totally be replaced by smartphones in various user scenarios, such as at work, for entertainment, and when studying, etc. in the near future.

However, no breakthrough was made by the developers of iOS and Android, the two most representative operating systems of mobile devices, within the past two years. Developers gradually realized that, maybe, it was time to turn back to PCs again. However, as can be seen in Apple and Xiaomi’s recent moves, they are not literally turning back to old PCs, but rather find new ways to make the next generation of PCs. In other words, mobile devices are actually nurturing and even guiding the development of PCs in the future.

Integrating PCs and smartphones is the inevitable trend

Since the beginning of this year, tech giants from China and abroad have been exploring the potential of PCs, and some pioneers may include Xiaomi and Microsoft. Yet, most of them seemed to spend much of their effort in combining mobile devices and PCs together.

During the Windows 10 Launch Event held on October 6 2015, Microsoft unveiled two new PCsand drew wide applause from around the world. Surface Pro 4 is an avant-garde hybrid built for productivity, design and security, while Surface Book is the very first laptop by Microsoft. Both of them were embraced by the market and consumers. By launching Windows 10 and Win10 Mobile, Microsoft has gone one step further in integrating PCs and smartphones.

Apple continues to sell traditional PCs, but is working out new ways to integrate PCs and smartphones: on the one hand, Apple continues to take advantage of the popularity of iPhone and promote its Mackbook; on the other hand, Apple plans to integrate PCs and smartphones by unveiling laptop-like iPad Pro this September.

So did Xiaomi. Since this summer, rumor spread a lot that Xiaomi was going to make PCs. Recently, it was reported that Xiaomi employed a former vice president of Lenovo and was going to release Xiaomi Book in 2016. According to media reports, Xiaomi is going to revolutionize the way PCs are made, so it is fair to believe that MIUI-based Xiaomi Book will certainly look quite different from traditional PCs.

Smartphones are actually nurturing and even guiding the development of PCs

Today’s integration between PCs and smartphones won’t definitely result in a Dopod-like product. Dopod is a PC-based mobile device, so icons, UI, appearance on Dopod were quite similar to those on Windows 98 and Windows XP.

However, since the launch of Windows 8, which adopted the same Metro UI of Windows Phone, smartphones began to nurture and even guide the development of PCs (though Window 8 went extremes and ended up a failure).

The same thing is happening between iPhones and Mac. So comfortable with the great user experience and cloud sync service of iPhone that many iPhone users bought a Mac to further enjoy Apple’s service.

Several years ago, Microsoft aimed to make smartphones more PC-like, while today, it is making PCs more smartphone-like. The recently released Windows 10 is an excellent is a typical example to illustrate my point, since it was essentially developed based on Window Phone.

By the way, Microsoft is said to turn the idea “Universal App” into reality and carry out a “Continuum” function on Win10 Mobile smartphones, so that new Window Phones will be turned into a mini Windows 10 laptop once plugged onto a display.

What will PCs look like in the future?

Although many insiders in the tech industry have been badmouthing PCs a lot, the inconvenient truth is that PCs might come back to our lives with the help of smartphones. Indeed, the era of PCs has only begun.

While traditional PCs are mostly clamshell-style, the configuration of next generation of PCs varies: slide, convertible, foldable, detachable, etc. On the one hand, PCs are becoming lighter, more portable, energy-efficient and of higher performance; on the other hand, they are integrating the advantages of tablets, such as touchscreens and detachable displays, to spare us efforts to transfer data between different gadgets while improving our user experience a lot.

However, it is far from enough. As a matter of fact, the user experience to shift between Surface and Apple’s PCs and their smartphones remains poor.

We can say for sure that PCs will be installed with a hefty touchscreen in the future. At that time, PCs and smartphones will share the same icons, UI, kernel, operation methods, and will be able to sync via cloud platforms. Microsoft and Apple have already been heading this way, while Xiaomi will also follow suit.

Moreover, PCs will break the boundary of different platforms, gadgets and screens in the future. The recent development of PCs and tablets is a perfect showcase of such trend: while atom or core m-based tablets are becoming increasingly light and portable, PCs are also installed with touchscreens. Indeed, the technology to integrate PCs and smartphones are getting more mature.

In this case, the golden age of PCs hasn’t gone yet. On the contrary, the era of PCs has only begun. It is due to the irreplaceable merits of PCs that these tech giants divide much effort on PCs. For sure, there could be a sea of potential in the development of PCs in the future.

As Jack Ma, the founder and CEO of Alibaba Group, once said: “PC was so popular yesterday, but forgotten today, further discarded tomorrow, yet will come back to people’s lives the day after tomorrow.”

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Wu Junyu, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.