The Rise of the BrowserI've started to see it happen across offices for quite some time now. The rise of the web. This means that you no longer sit at your computer to get access to desktop applications like Word, Excel and Photoshop. And, oh yeah, by the way, that icon is for web sites.
Now you sit at a computer primarily for web sites. Photoshop is being replaced with sites like Aviary.com. MS Office is quickly being replaced with items like Google Docs. And when was the last time the general public used anything but web email?
What's interesting about all of this is that you don't need a very powerful computer to run a browser. Web masters are going to make their sites accessible for most popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari. Most of us do this with our smart phones.
But what should lengthen the lifespan of the computer will make it a target for extinction by Microsoft.
MS is primarily in the business to sell operating system (OS) licenses. Knowing that the browser is being all important, the next version of Internet Explorer (IE) v9 will not work on Windows XP. This forces an upgrade to Windows 7 for any industry that relies on ACTIVE X controls.