Watch a movie on the iPad? Convenient? Not on that small ass screen it's not . If it puts it on to a TV, then maybe, sure. Now that I said that, I'm breaking the rest of the reply down as I'm of "two minds" on the matter, plus a thought at the end you may or may not take seriously.

Thought One: Don't give up, Frogboy. Adapt. If need be, make a new branch of Stardock dedicated to making these little $2 Apps and bank on it. You could also just keep making the AWESOME things you make now for the PC. Make owning a PC Fun and Easy with Stardock products and make As Many of them as You Can. Some people, even though the market will be small, would buy a PC just so they could enjoy your PC products. I know because I bought my X-Box360 solely so I could play the few titles that don't cross over to the PC and the Wii. I only buy 4 or 5 X-Box360 games a year, sometimes a few more, or a few less. It's a "Niche". PC gaming or even using may come down to also being a "Niche", but it would be a niche YOU OWN. Don't give up the ghost. I have faith in your abilities and in Stardock and if you sold stock I'd be the first person in line with a hand-full of cash wanting to buy.

Thought Two: This might come off the wrong way so don't take it to sound bad, I don't mean it that way. Ask your-self, "Why do I Care?". Why do You care? You're already a Multi-Millionaire. You could sell off the company and Retire RIGHT NOW. I'm just guessing as I obviously have no idea what your personal finances are but I'm guessing you have enough that You, your kids, your Gran-kids, and possibly even your Great-Gran-Kids would NEVER have to work a day in their lives. Assuming the market doesn't crash completely you could bank the Millions and live quite comfortably on the interest Alone. What is the interest per month on 2 Million Dollars these days? A thousand dollars? Two thousand dollars? Let's just guess you have 5 Million dollars in the bank and the interest on that is $4,000 a month. If you can't live decently on $4,000 a month something is wrong with the way you live. I can live comfortably on $2,000 a month, still feed my-self, my wife, my pets, pay my rent, my bills, and even have money left over to buy a new game or two....on 2k a month. If PC's really do "Die Out" as far as the general consumer go you're set for life anyway. You said it your-self a few weeks ago in a reply to some-one here on these very forums "How many millions do I need exactly?". Remember that? Some of your employees might have to look for future employment, but you won't.

Final Thoughts: Like you said, if Microsoft doesn't get off their asses and do something soon, all us PC users are in for trouble in a few years time. Why wait on Microsoft. You have the Resources, You have the man-power working for you, You have the Knowledge in your staff.....Why don't you take Stardock into the OS Business? With all the things you make that change a OS, all the upgrade and features you integrate with your awesome software, isn't the next logical step to make a OS your-self? (by your-self I mean Stardock of course) Just in making the things you do you show that the general public is largely unhappy with how Windows works. Your Programs and Apps change that and people buy them up. People would buy a Stardock OS that uses all those features and more. Knowing the Awesomeness that is Stardock, I'm confident you could make a new Operating System that would make Windows look like a hole in the wall. Make the jump. You'd OWN that too.

All the best, Raven X

This quiet voice in the corner of the room is of the humble opinion that, moving forward, Apple's big competition is not Microsoft or Google, but Canonical.  Apple works because it's a hardware company, and it doesn't actually compete with Microsoft as directly as people think.  Sure, they want more market share vs. PCs, but they still run Microsoft software - Office, for example - on their computers.  On the other hand, Microsoft is a software company that simply sells their stuff to hardware developers.

Likewise, Google is a software company that makes all of its money on increasingly personalized and well-placed advertising.  Indeed, one might go so far as to call them an advertising company that happens to use web-based software to do it.

Canonical - maker of Ubuntu - is also a software company, but with a whole different model than Microsoft or Google, and an entirely more people-friendly and innovative approach than Apple.  Because Ubuntu is free, Canonical stands to make money from supporting large-scale implementations of their OS - for example, in school districts - in a way that is much more efficient than what traditional software OR hardware distributors can afford.  In the USA, especially, Canonical isn't making a lot of noise yet, but Ubuntu is increasingly popular worldwide.

As an Ubuntu user, I can say the only reason I still have Windows is gaming.  Everything else - and I mean everything - is better on Ubuntu.  I've also, professionally, spent a fair amount of time with Macs, and as cool as the iPad and such are, Apple's hardware-first mentality means that they often skimp terribly on software, and the user-experience is so bogged down in proprietary mumbo-jumbo that it's often difficult to do what you need to do.  On a netbook loaded with Ubuntu, on the other hand, you have almost all of the functionality for a fraction of the cost.

I know, Linux is not and never will be for everyone.  Some users don't want flexibility, value, or usability so much as they want an image.  But don't think that because Linux was hard to use in 2000 it still is.  I guarantee there are people at Apple cautioning against that mistake.

I have never understood the 'it just works' argument.

I can do all of those things with windows and it 'just works', i think people tend to have a lot of crap installed.

The only thing that doesnt always just work in my experience are mutlplayer games with the whole routers, portforwarding, firewall bollocks.

Having said that nothing against apple, never needed one that's all.

Good luck designing and rendering anything 3D on one or composing a 60 track musical masterpiece with a couple of dozen VST's on it.

As far as being always on, Does anyone actually shut their PC's down these days, I know I don't.

and who can forget this look into the future?  http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/168371/Why_Kindle_will_fail_as_a_device_succeed_as_a_format

Seems to me Kindle is still going strong.

If windows loses dominance before I'm 6 feet under I'll be highly shocked, hell, more than half the planet is still using and in a lot of cases, liking ...... Win XP.

Most people with laptops put them to sleep (not shut down, just putting the lid down).

I snagged the humble indie bundle as well.  I did play some Goo on my PC and thought it was/is a fantastic game.  A perfect game for the ipad   I doubt i will even install the others lol.

Wii is good drunk fun along with rockband!

I run msconfig all the time. I also have Startup Cop and TweakVista.

When I say "instant" on I mean just that. Instantaneous.  With a typical laptop, it has to "sleep" unless it's plugged in and bringing it out of sleep can take several seconds.  

Well, i wont lie, would def. be cool to have one if for nothing else than to sit my ass in the bed and l e a r n.

Lord knows this chair gets old sometimes.

Agreed that these kind of devices will take a large market share... I just don't want Apple to be dominant.. but I think it might be a little to late for that now. I guess I just don't like their company philosophy at all.. actually I think I just don't agree with it. It's probably why I can't get into any of their products.

In my personal opinion everything that has been written here depends solely on your perspective on the technology and the consumer market. 

There is no doubt that Frogboy has keen insights on both.

The consumer market is very broad and covers many demographics such as Gamers, power users, casual users, economics and lets not forget age of the user and many more categories.  Who is to say with clarity of vision as to what will actually happen tomorrow.  Also don't forget that there will always be the unknown factor, will a need be developed for the new technology that will make these changes necessary.

Okay, that's all I came up with when I took my shower this morning.

Have a great day everyone.

Interesting: 

http://gizmodo.com/5541969/bill-gates-told-steve-jobs-about-the-ipad-in-2007

Very true, but in 2 or 3 years when the iPad fad has worn thin, or a new gadget is out, millions will still be turning on their PC's (and waiting for it to boot). Many people like hardware that they can diagnose and work on themselves if needed as well. We've seen it all come and go. Almost since it's creation Apple has been trying to sell the public, non upgradeable hardware. They want to sell you something new every year or two. I have two Desktop PC's on my home network (in addition to 3 laptops) one is is a 10 year old Pentium III the other is a 6 year old Pentium IV. Will the iPad have that kind of longevity? Doubtful, even Apple doesn't want that.

As another commenter mentioned, when you can get a laptop at a sub $300 price, a little wait time might not be a big deal. I'm not knocking the iPad, I like gadgets and they have their place, but until a device becomes more than just the flavor of the month, and has some staying power (Apple's iPod is their only product IMO that meets this goal).