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One thought I had about a week ago, where is the computer market heading? With computers at bottom barrel prices and online apps from Google on the rise what is going to happen to computers for the everyday use? I’m going to stick my neck out and say this is my prophesy.

With the sudo laptops emerging and online storage and syncing services, computers will become cheaper yet with no real need to store any information locally. Gmail offers you a really decent size for your mailbox. Actually one of the largest of the webmail interfaces, 6GB to be exact. You can stream your television programs from the internet; even HD content is available from some networks. Music and movis can be accessed their too.

Blogging, the real force on the internet now gives common people a voice to be heard on the internet. Communities dedicated to some sort of activity can usually shed more light on a product or service better than a retailer. Tech review blogs challenge manufactures to come up with great products and then allow common people to share their experience. This can make or break products right off the manufactures line. If you bring out a sub par product and it grabs the attention of a blogger who has a decent readership, look out. You could see thousands of people not buying the product because of one sites review.

My income is directly influenced by the computer market. I repair and fix computer equipment. I could see 10 years from now people will not pay to have a computer fixed. I can see the trend already starting. In 1993 at 13 years old I started fixing computers on a whim. A friend of mine had an issue with their computer. I sat down and within about 20 minutes, I figured it was a faulty card and replaced it. His dad was impressed that I figured it out that quick. He had taken it to the local computer shop time after time and they never fixed it. Now I’m not claiming that it wasn’t dumb luck but it did spur 3 other jobs. From there my pc business just grew. I was fixing pcs every day of the week by 17. I would schedule out 3 weeks ahead of time. Now after the pc prices dropped in the past 3 years it really started dying off. My quality of service didn’t decline the calls just got less frequent. Now my most popular thing is hooking up broadband connections and setting up home networks. Do I run into all kinds of computer issues when I show up to do this, yes but people have come to realize they are more willing to pay you to setup there new machine then to fix that old piece of junk.

Cellular networks are expanding every year. We now have broadband connect cards from most major networks allowing us to connect anywhere we are. I sat in a Wegmans parking lot and ran a speed test of AT&T’s 3G Network and blogged about it. It will be that easy. A sudo laptop with a cellular card or some WiMax technology with a link to everything you could think of, your vehicles performance and maintenance data, what temperature your house is currently at, or what is in your refrigerator. We are very close now but technology will have to still have to evolve to contain some of this. Storage will be the biggest problem, think how much information there will be to contain.

So that brings me back to my main point. What will computers be in the future. Their data will be stored online and the computer will just be a portal to get you there. You will have your power users storing things locally but for the most part it will all be online. Your entertainment, news aggregator, Communication hub, Planner and life will be a login away.