The end of the word processor?

Do word processors have a future?

Desktop PCs (and laptop PCs) were built for composers, people who assembled information. The earliest applications for PCs were word processors (Wordstar, Wordperfect, and others), spreadsheets (Visicalc, Supercalc, Lotus 1-2-3), databases (dBase II), and development tools (BASIC, assembly language, Pascal, C, and others).

Cell phones and tablets are built for consumers, people who view information but do not create information. The early apps were games, instant messaging, music players, cameras, Twitter, and perhaps the New York Times.

One does not compose documents on a cell phone. Nor does one compose spreadsheets, or presentations. It is a platform for consuming content, not creating it.

Which leads to the question: in the new world of phones and tablets, how do we create content?

I think that the answer is: we create it on a different platform.

Perhaps we create it on servers. Or perhaps we create it on the few desktops that still exist. (I suspect that desktop PCs will not go away, but like mainframes will exist in small numbers.)

But not everyone will be composing. I expect that only a small percentage of computer users will be creating content. The typical home user will not need Microsoft Word. One does not need a word processor to run a household today -- and I suspect one never really needed one.

This shrinks the market for word processors and spreadsheets. More specifically, this shrinks the market for Microsoft Office. And I think Microsoft knows this. It knows that the home market for Microsoft Office is evaporating. (The business side is a different case. More on that in another post.)

Word processors replaced typewriters. They were a convenient way of collecting text for printing on paper. With the advent of the internet and e-mail, we eliminated the step of printing text on paper. That leaves us with the idea of collecting text and sharing it with people -- and one does not need a word processor for that.