Microsoft Partners: Desktops Aren't Becoming Irrelevant

At the Digital Landscapes Conference in Ireland last week, John Herlihy, Google's head of sales in Europe, suggested that desktop PCs will soon take a back seat to mobile devices. "In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs," Herlihy said at the event, as reported by SiliconRepublic.com.

The prospect of such a rapid transition from desktop to mobile could be a wake-up call for companies like Microsoft, but solution providers interviewed by Channelweb.com don't think the three-year window Herlihy proposed is realistic.

"The cloud is here to stay, and more and more applications will tend to move in that direction," said Neil Pearlstein, president of PC Professional, an Oakland, Calif.-based Microsoft Gold Partner. "But while I agree that a shift to a more mobile desktop will be occurring, three years is very aggressive, and as we all know, change takes time to happen."

Microsoft will continue to sell and innovate their desktop applications regardless of whether they're cloud-based or local, according to Pearlstein. "It's just the way we use them that will be changing in the next three to six years."

Daniel Duffy, CEO of Valley Network Solutions, a solution provider in Fresno, Calif., says Herlihy's comments are the same sort of hyperbole that Microsoft has been engaging in over the past couple of decades.

While Duffy agrees that mobile devices and high-speed mobile connectivity will become more ubiquitous, he disagrees with the suggestion that desktops will become irrelevant. "This is wishful thinking from another 'Google-ite' who's trying to mold the future to their worldview," Duffy said.

Google isn't the only company pushing cloud computing, but it's certainly one of the loudest voices. Marc Harrison, president of Silicon East, a Microsoft solution provider in Manalapan, N.J., also believes that Herlihy's prediction is a stretch.

"That's quite a dream Google has," Harrison said. "I can't envision any business in the U.S. moving all of its mission critical and proprietary information to the cloud in the next decade, let alone the next three years."

According to Herlihy, information overload will continue to drive interest in search technology and lead to the creation of new business models. He also pointed to Japan's accelerated mobile adoption, noting that the country conducts a majority of its research on mobile devices instead of PCs.

Duffy said this is because Japan has a faster Internet connectivity than much of the U.S., adding that this situation probably won't improve until the economy recovers.

"We have much bigger priorities to address first," Duffy said.