Desktops 'Irrelevant' in 3 Years: Google Exec

In three years, the desktop computer will be a relic of a bygone era and cloud computing will be the standard. At least that’s Google’s bet, as expounded by Europe exec John Herlihy. Down the road, he told a conference, “desktops will be irrelevant.” Just look at Japan, where “most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs.” Google, he says, is leaving the PC behind and focusing on the cloud going forward.

Herlihy’s comments mirror recent ones made by Google’s CEO, SiliconRepublic reports, and indicate a shift toward mobile development and applications. Herlihy made sure to mention the upside for the search giant. “Mobile makes the world’s information universally accessible,” he said. And “because there’s more information and because it will be hard to sift through it all, that’s why search will become more and more important.” (More John Herlihy stories.)