The desktop computer as we know it is far from complete extinction. However, their days were numbered the moment the concept of cloud computing was invented.

What is cloud computing? In a few words, the network is the computer. Gartner says it is "a style of computing whose massively scalable and elastic, IT-related capabilities are provided 'as a service' to external customers using Internet technologies."

This concept has been pushed into the mass market in the past by companies such as Oracle, with unsuccessful results. Why? To mention just a couple of factors that caused the concept of cloud computing to go belly up, we can start with the fact that broadband Internet access was almost nonexistent at that time. Today, it is estimated that more than half of the population in the USA has broadband Internet access, therefore taking the speed problems away. But another element that hindered the popularity of the concept was the expensive price the cloud computing vendor was asking in order to deliver it.

Today the above-mentioned negative factors against cloud computing are almost nonexistent, as more and more people are jumping into the broadband wagon. Companies such as
Google, Microsoft, Sun, Amazon, IBM and Apple, among others, are working to their full capacity and more, trying to bring cloud computing and the related software to the mass market.

Will the concept of cloud computing be successful this time? Most likely yes! It has all the ingredients needed to succeed: broadband is ubiquitous, more big companies are involved with the concept and competing with each other for a piece of the pie, hardware is powerful enough and can be clustered up to form super-computers.

So what will happen to the desktop computer? Well, it will be very interesting to see the massive choice of new appliances that will saturate the market during the next few years. The desktop computer will naturally evolve to be just a monitor, with a few elements that resemble your desktop computer today. But no hard drives. Everything will be stored on the "cloud".

Will you like that form of computing? That is yet to be seen. The concept of not having full control over your own data still creates insecurity among a good segment of the population. Nonetheless, just like it has always been with technology, early adopters will drive the market forward until it reaches maturity. One thing we know for sure: the sons of your sons will grow up thinking that the network is the computer, and your current desktop computer model will be nicely displayed behind a glass in a museum.