Definite forecast is an oxymoron, and the analogy that Steve Jobs made in the interview with Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher for Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference on Tuesday is also an oxymoron. Steve Jobs suggested an analogy of how cars replace trucks to iPads replace PCs, and then he said something of sort — one out of many people will need a PC! Ain’t this an oxymoron as in a definite forecast? We all know there is no such a thing as a definite forecast, because forecast is what lies in the future — nothing is definitely definite unless it’s right here and right in front of us, where we can listen, stare, taste, smell, and touch it.
Is the sixth sense even real? Some geeky people may think Steve Jobs has the sixth sense which may make his forecast of how iPads replace PCs as a definite forecast. So what am I trying to aim at? Nothing really! I think Steve Jobs is dead on about how iPads may replace PCs as in cars replace trucks as in oxymoron. Oxymoron doesn’t have to be wrong! Trucks aren’t really being replaced by cars, people just think cars are more useful than trucks in certain situations (more fashionable, maybe), oxymoron suggests that trucks are still around; people drive them trucks that I see every other day.
Steve Jobs is dead on about iPads, but I think it’s only a short-lived forecast, because Apple’s competitors may think even further out such as creating wearable PCs. Wearable PCs are fashionable and wearable; when these are available, i think iPads might be just as outdated as PCs. Oxymoron again, iPads won’t be dead, just not that popular as before. What about those futuristic iPads? What I’m talking about are those have shown in many science fiction movies, with a spread of an index finger and a thumb, and out, comes a 3D glass looking hologram to allow the manipulations of applications. Ya, that is pretty far out there, but the pasts have shown us that what can be imagined, all can be invented, and then some can be commercialized.
It’s an oxymoron for one to say cars replace trucks, but trucks can still be seen everywhere, just not every time; it’s the same for iPads and PCs. Oxymoron doesn’t have to be wrong! In this case, oxymoron is a popularity gauge for cars and iPads. Nonetheless, I like to make a definite forecast that iPad is a fluke to us all, because we always want something better even though it’s apparently that we do have something that’s pretty darn good. What is left to be said is that it’s not that iPads will replace PCs, but it’s that the tablet devices from Apple’s competitors will come out in abundance and flood the market — one can say the tablets may replace the PCs, and this is also an oxymoron. Source.
Vinh Nguyen
