Roaring it came, and buried the computer industry: the smart phone avalanche. After dominating the world for almost 25 years, bulky computers are now giving way to smaller handheld smart phones and tablets. The avalanche, set off by Apple under its late founder Steve Jobs, has buried the computer industry, including the big-fishes like HP and Dell.

“Today, Apple is re-inventing the phone,” Steve Jobs said as he launched the i-phone in 2007. It sounded like an exaggeration then, but the way i-phone set new standards with its touch-sensitive screen redefined the phone industry. Other than appearance and performance, i-phone brought forth something that completely transformed how we use phones: apps.

With this, the phone industry got ‘smart’ and never backed down. Then came the tablet, which only helped the phone industry take over the computers. Things are going from bad to worse for the computer firms who are trying to keep up and not miss the train.

Smart phone sales are about to surpass their PC counterparts, with the numbers expected to reach 1.6 billion units in 2016! Over the past quarter 35 million i-phones and 12  million i-pads have been sold, while over the same period only 89 million PCs were sold by all manufacturers put together!

Below is the reports of usage of Computer vs Smartphone in some countries :

There are basically two factors that contribute to the blooming sales of the smart phones:

First, it is the price. With smart phones obviously being cheaper than computers, who wouldn’t give it a go. Moreover, the prices are still declining. After hovering around $315 in 2011, average price of a smart phone is expected to drop to $200 within the next couple of years. A report mentions that by 2016, smart phones will make up about 2/3 of all mobile sales.

Secondly, its the smart phone itself. The so-great features, or I should say apps, help speed up the avalanche. The apps, which are mostly free, attract people. Its not that they are better than Windows or anything akin, still… so-much in a small device is worth buying.

So, get ready for a smarter tomorrow, for the smart phones, which have already buried the computer industry, will now choke them to death. R.I.P.