Mobile tycoon tops Gates as world's richest --- does this mean the PC's best days are behind it?
- TAGS:Bill Gates, Carlos Slim Helu, Microsoft, mobile
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Desktop Apps, Development, Enterprise Apps, Macs & PCs, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Operating Systems, Web Apps, Windows
It's official: Bill Gates is not the world's richest man. He's been beaten out by Mexican mobile tycoon Carlos Slim Helu. Does that mean that the PC's best days are behind it, and the the real innovation in the future is mobile?
Forbes lists Carlos Slim Helu as the world's richest man, because the stock prices of his telecom holdings, notably the mobile giant America Movil, have surged. The magazine says that he's worth $53.5 billion, up a whopping $18.5 billion in a year. That's due largely to the stock price of America Avil, which jumped 35% in the last year.
Gates is worth a mere $53 billion, and his holdings are up $13 billion from a year ago due to Microsoft's price surge in the last year, when it rose 50%.
Is this a symbolic changing of the guard? Is it a final sign that the PC's best days are behind it, and innovation --- and wealth --- are on the side of mobile?
Yes and no. Most of the interesting new apps are clearly being written for mobile devices of all kinds, not just for the iPhone and now Android, but for other smart phones as well. Location-based services have yet to come into their own, and when they do, the uptake will be tremendous.
And consider this: When was the last time there was a PC-based app that you just had to have?
The innovation on PCs these days is not on the computer itself, but rather on Web-based sites and services and in the cloud. And if your PC can access those services, so can a mobile device.
On the other hand, the PC isn't going away any time soon, and will remain the center of people's tech lives and work lives. Processing power, a full-sized screen and keyboard, great graphics and a capacious hard drive all have their places. And what is a PC anymore anyway? What would you call a netbook, for example? An iPad? Are they computers? Mobile devices?
In addition, apps increasingly will be written for both PCs and mobile devices, and to tie them together. So the PC as a device will always be with us. But revenue growth, and therefore app development, are on the side of mobile and cloud computing, and the PC will go along for the ride.
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