There was a joke about how soon a computer will boot up a web browser, not a desktop, and it was noted that my yearly internet access costs more then what I spent on my whole computer.
A co-worker then said, “And to get even more tangential, this makes me think of a computing model based on leasing vs. owning. Will I soon be able to get a free laptop after I sign a two year internet contract with T-Mobile? A connectionless computer seems pretty useless to most people nowadays.”
As more software moves online – see Adobe’s announcement its online Photoshop Express product, we are definitely moving towards a day, joke or no joke, when the only thing we may need is in fact a browser.