Reports of PC's death greatly exaggerated

The desktop PC isn't going anywhere, in spite of HP's shock move to divest itself of its PC division, Personal Systems Group.

That's the opinion of Microsoft executive Frank Shaw, who has posted a blog in defence of the humble PC as analysts tout the arrival of a new technology world.

Shaw says devices like smartphones and tablets will enhance and complement PCs, rather than rendering them obsolete.

"As human beings," Shaw writes, "we're inherently social, and we use our tools to create, collaborate, communicate and consume.

 "I'll be the first to admit that these new 'non-PC' objects do a great job at enabling people to communicate and consume in innovative and interesting ways... but even their most ardent admirers will not assert that they are as good as PCs at the first two verbs, create and collaborate.

"So while it's fun for the digerati to pronounce things dead, and declare we're post-PC, we think it's far more accurate to say that the 30-year-old PC isn't even middle-aged yet, and about to take up snowboarding.

Do you think the PC is dead?