What Is The Personal Computing Experience?

I've been associated with ATPM (About This Particular Macintosh) since 1995. The publication was started to celebrate what we call the "personal computing experience." Back then the user experience revolved around the desktop Mac or PC and the Internet was just arriving via of modem. Those were the days of dial-up, Netscape Navigator 1.0 and an Internet experience dominated by geeks, message boards and avant-garde artists. It was not the domain of commercial interests offering multimedia rich online experiences as it is today.

Today the "personal computing experience" is as much about handheld devices as it is about desktop computers and laptops. While the form factors have changed and Internet access speeds have risen exponentially, the personal computing experience is still about the way we wish to digitally see and communicate with the world.

The iPhone has become my primary news reader, personal communication portal and always-connected source for information and musical entertainment. For $200 (and a long two-year contract) I can easily carry all of the Web and all of the personal communication resources I need in my pocket.

The iPhone is among the reasons the PC market has seen its zenith and the reason application developers (big and small) are flocking to the OS X platform. The Apple app store is an amazing virtual storefront offering almost everything imaginable and often at $.99 or less.

The iPhone has made the personal computing experience more grand in scope even if the device used has become much smaller in size.