About this debate: Some folk in the technology industry, including the late Steve Jobs, have argued that we are now in a "post-PC" era. According to this view, the PC is no longer the centre of the computing world. Instead, it is taking a back seat to a wide range of new mobile-computing devices which will dominate the future. These include tablet computers and smartphones. Combined shipments of the two devices are forecast to exceed those of PCs for the first time this year. So is the PC passé? Or is talk of a post-PC world overblown?

Background reading

• Special report: Personal technology: Beyond the PC
• Daily Chart: Beyond the PC
• The Difference Engine: Sleeping tablets
• Technology and society: Here comes anyware
• Dell and Hewlett-Packard: Rebooting their systems
• Computing: The PC is dead—long live the PC
• The Economist Ideas Arena on Personal Technology