Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The Future of the PC (01 Feb 2005) These days many of us have access to a personal computer and they're invading our lives to an extraordinary degree. We write our letters on them, work out the household finances, store our digital photos, listen to radio, download music, do the shopping and email friends. But things are changing. We've weathered the early, exciting days of the "microcomputer" and the years that followed when profits were to be made by the big manufacturers. Now personal computers are everywhere. But for the manufacturers, profits are under threat and there's a forecast that three of the top ten companies will be forced out of the market in the next couple of years. And over a similar time span, the first generation of computer-literate kids will enter the work place. So where next for the personal computer and will we even recognize it in ten years time? Will it be tiny and cheap or the hub of our homes, powering everything from internet fridges to the DVD player? Article URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/shoptalk/shoptalk_20050201.shtml   28.00    (Shop Talk)   Read 200 more articles from BBC Radio 4 sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: The Password Is Fayleyure     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy