How the PC Is Merging With the Smartphone

[Commentary] Over the last seven years, since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the PC has gradually been dethroned by the smartphone (and to a lesser extent, by the tablet) as the key digital device.

PC sales have fallen significantly in recent years, racking up their worst annual sales in 2014, while smartphone and tablet sales have soared.

Almost all of the energy that developers once put into making software for laptops and desktops is now devoted to making mobile apps and mobile websites.

Just recently, it has become clear that a serious effort has begun to merge the smartphone and the PC, or at least to bring some of the more familiar features of the surging smartphone to the tanking PC. We are seeing the start of what I expect to be a long-term trend to make PCs look and act more like smartphones, and to bring to the PC some of the functions of the phone.