Devil's Advocate: Gadgetry without innovation?

Technology has moved on and innovation is always welcome in tough times - so why is the PC world so conservative? Martin Brampton, director at consultancy Black Sheep Research, ponders this question.

Am I being an old grouch? Or is there really very little of interest coming out of the PC sector these days? The PC market has peaked and the one vendor that is happy with the situation is Dell. But the only thing that appears to excite Dell is increased market share - the company has always had a reputation for conservative technology.

In some ways, we seem to be going backwards. Some of the key innovations that created the PC market have been compromised by subsequent developments. Take the idea of plugging in extra hardware. IBM's original PC had a simple bus with the idea that the user could open up the case and add extra cards. Admittedly, there were messy questions of configuration and software support.

Now, although there are attempts to automate the process, it seems to go wrong in ever more complex ways. Recently, I had to return a modem to the retailer as its installation process seemed quite unusable. And that for as simple a device as a modem!

Let's turn to the internet. Critical to its development was the principle of standard facilities that could be implemented on any computer, regardless of hardware type or operating system. The worldwide web was invented to share documents between people (originally scientists) - again regardless of the computer system in use. The fundamental value of the web is its ability to deliver content globally, cheaply and easily. All of that is being undermined by the ever more complex and platform dependent developments that currently count as innovation.

In other areas, the situation is all but static. Desktop productivity suites are forever being upgraded, but to what effect? Few of the people I have asked are able to identify a single new feature that has been introduced to word processors or spreadsheets in the last five years. The exceptional person proudly describes one new feature that they find useful. Where is that extra processing power going?

The absence of cheap, generally available broadband is a factor limiting general use of the web. It is not the only one, though. With the PC market stalled, it is clear large sectors of the consumer market simply do not find it an attractive device. Yet there is no alternative that is gaining significant ground. With the world economy in the doldrums it seems the ideal time for real innovation and the creation of a new consumer product that would make the internet genuinely ubiquitous, at least in the affluent parts of the world.

What do you think is needed? I would favour a complete break with the past. The average PC is cluttered up with obsolete features such as serial and parallel ports. Without them, a computer could nowadays be a much smaller device. It is a mystery why PCs need ten times the processing power of just three or four years ago. Perhaps, instead, we could aim at very low power consumption and do away with those irritating, noisy cooling fans. Then we could look for a more intelligent interface so that extra features could be added without a user needing to be a technical wizard.

But the really exciting area is always software. It is limited only by human imagination. Sadly, I only have a modest share of it, so I cannot tell you the answers. If we start from the idea of a cheap computer, constantly linked to a global communications network, what are the new and exciting things that can be done? Answers on a postcard - or email, preferably -) please!

** Martin Brampton is a director and founder of Black Sheep Research (http://www.black-sheep-research.co.uk ), an independent consultancy providing research, writing and speaking services on a wide range of business and technology subjects. Martin was previously a director at Bloor Research, and has worked with IT as a user and analyst for over 20 years. He is a frequent contributor to silicon.com's weekly Behind the Headlines TV programme and can be contacted at silicon@black-sheep-research.co.uk.