Hey HP, How do you like them Apples?

An interesting commentary from Brooks Crothers of CNET.com about the slow-motion collapse of the desktop computer market in favor of the tablet. And the tablet largely means the Apple iPad and iPad Mini. Hewlett-Packard sees a shrinking market for its Windows PCs.

Now I see ads on Frys.com for lots and lots of desktop PCs. I see them at Costco. I use one at work at a large institutional setting with a wired LAN connection to the wider hospital. So the term “collapse” may be overkill. “Consolidation” is more like it.

But I also know that I bought a new HP printer and I wanted a wireless connection between it’s scanner and printer and my computers so I didn’t have to futz with a tangle of USB/Ethernet cables.

I am bemused that 90 to 100 years ago, the great race in radio was to establish communications over greater and greater distances. Now the race is on to establish communication between your computer desk and the printer on the next table. The trick here is make sure someone else can’t intercept the communication and that multiple users in a large condo complex don’t step on each other’s links.