Blender, Iron, Computer

Wallmart's $199 no-Windows, no-Intel Web surfing computer is on the market and selling briskly, according to this CNN article. Whether or not the Walmart model flies off the shelves, this marks a new beginning: The computer -- or more accurately, a dedicated tool to access the Internet -- is finally a standard household appliance, not unlike a telephone. The only remaining step is to shrink it down to the *size* of a phone.

Comments

[JAT]

I'd argue it is even more significant than that, primary because a PC is not single-purpose appliance, but a multi-use tool. You can't use an iron to make toast, I mean you COULD be it would be very messy; beating an egg even more so. Not so a tool like a pooter. I can use it to balance my checkbook, write the great American novel, level my StarMage in bloody battles with She-Orcs, communicate instantly around the globe in text, audio, and video, and watch endless loops of Danish porn, I mean you COULD. This makes a PC more like a hammer, paintbrush, or screwdriver. The price-point hasn't reached those levels, but at a few hundred dollars the PC moves out of the major purchase realm and into the simple consumer electronics heap. Consider the value its multiple uses conveys and it becomes an absolute bargain to millions of computer-less households.