What programmers want is more power what users want is less.
How do we find a happy medium? We create a happy framework to meet these needs!
The next PC breakthrough will look, feel, and even smell like a newspaper but allow for simple interactive functionality such as a text search.
Users want smaller, more unobtrusive computers that do one, two, or even three things very well, in a self-contained way that requires no maintenance.
People do not like cars for one reason; it requires maintenance.
While people do like simple functional tools such as a hammer.
A hammer is self-contained, it does not require maintenance, and it does what it is made for very well.
It doesn't attempt to do everything and if it breaks you can simply get a new one because they are relatively inexpensive.
Programmers want to create functionality once that can be delivered to any type of computing device or PC.
Imagine printable paper that can be given a program to run.
Now think about computerized greetings cards and visual holograms on paper.
We are talking about a computer so thin it can bend, be ripped, and folded over just like a newspaper.
Regular printing paper that contains computer running components that reads one program and runs it when initialized.
A simple example might be a newspaper with a touch text search initializer that pops up a hologram layer that enables a word search of the text and returns a column and paragraph number in which the matching text has been found in.
There is a race on to see who can be the first to create a all-in-one, self-reliant computer that looks and feels like a real newspaper.
The PC's handicap is the PC itself. Taking the computer out of the computer will bring the computer to everyone.
Imagine real printable paper that was made with a stand-alone computer shell that can be preprogrammed with very simple user functionality.
Simple computers, small enough to not be noticeable or cumbersome and useful enough to make something common much more useful and easier to use.
The largest most obvious hindrance to accomplish the above mentioned goal of super-thin computing is the issue of a power source.
Will the power source be embedded within itself?
What form of a power source will it use; solar, cellular, wireless, electric, batteries..?
Is a power source even necessary for extremely simple functionality?
Will providing a built-in power source need to be recharged, how so, and at what cost?
Will a built-in power source cause consternation and fears (privacy etc.)?
This would be a true breakthrough and user-friendly implementation that bespeaks the purpose of computers in helping us all.