EFFECT: DECLINE OF WINTEL DESKTOPS AND LAPTOPS AS THEY ARE REPLACED BY HANDHELDS

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-personal-computing-platforms-2012-9SUBSTITUTION EFFECT: DECLINE OF WINTEL DESKTOPS AND LAPTOPS AS THEY ARE REPLACED BY HANDHELDS

This chart’s making the rounds again.

But, why do I care about pointing out the obvious? I care because the Seattle to Redmod region is a ‘green zone’ of concentrated wealth that has an expiration date engraved on Mount Si.

And while the transition will be painful. And you can already see it in the composition of the stores and other businesses. The reason the region will survive is that for a generation, that wealth will remain, and the large number of engineers are plastic enough to start new businesses. See what happened to Rochester and Xerox by comparison, for precisely the same reasons. And unlike Rochester, Seattle is on a coast, has a port, cheap electricity, a temperate climate and as yet, few racial and social problems.