I am absolutely amazed, that picture at the beginning of the article seems to have taken on a life of it's own.
More on topic, quick PC obsolescence was always something of a myth. Parts were only really obsolete if you absolutely had to run the latest shooter at the absolute highest settings known to man. So it wasn't that it was obsolete, it was that the user needed to justify their desire to buy the latest for bragging rights.
Less on topic, but more on the picture: I was wondering about that image. Something struck me as off. And then I realized that the computer had a steering wheel. So for those interested, yes, it _is_ odd for a computer to have a steering wheel that large.
"Many a prognosticator who has tried to envision the future has been tripped up by a failure to correctly anticipate the direction of technological change."
I straight away thought of Kubrik's 2001. The complete failure to imagine mobile phones. Floyd uses a fixed video phone to phone home from the space ship. Personal mobile technology is the thing.
Back nearer the topic: When I can hook my phone up to a monitor and keyboard I'm done.
If you remember "Stranger in a Strange Land" (1960s) set around the year 2000, one of the characters, a reporter I believe, had a mobile phone that was the size of a briefcase. Another character marveled that he must be rather well off because mobile phones were so expensive.
More on topic, quick PC obsolescence was always something of a myth. Parts were only really obsolete if you absolutely had to run the latest shooter at the absolute highest settings known to man. So it wasn't that it was obsolete, it was that the user needed to justify their desire to buy the latest for bragging rights.