Terrific essay. You made only one boo-boo -- but it strenghthens your argument. I go at it in a f/u post [1], but the bottom line is that PCs are not cheap at all. Where I live only a minority of the relatively wealthy population can keep a winbox running, and they're dependent on costly ISP services and friend/family tech support that less wealthy people don't have. Forget details like backup (not cheap). Don't mention networks, home servers, etc.
The new generation devices are far less costly to own and operate. The iPad's capped pay-go $15/280 data plan is subversive. I can only imagine AT&T's screaming as Apple squeezed on that one.
[1]http://notes.kateva.org/2010/04/stross-on-post-pc-world-mostly-right.html
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