Right now, AirPlay is not well known or understood by most people. I think Apple likes it that way because it will take time for them to truly perfect it.  But early adopters know that AirPlay, as much as the iPhone and the iPod, threatens to change the way we think of computing.

AirPlay lets you stream the output of one device to another. It’s kind of the reverse of a remote control setup because you’re pushing rather than pulling. It’s also a lot harder to do. When you’re “pulling” (i.e. remote desktop for instance) you just have a machine that you’re trying to get stuff from.  When you’re pushing, all the devices you’re pushing to have to be set up to receive.

So what is going to happen? Well, if left uncontested, AirPlay is going to wipe out a lot of current ecosystems and platforms. 

AirPlay today:

With my Windows PC (or Mac) running iTunes I can take a video and stream it to any Airplay enabled device (speakers or monitors or televisions that have an AirPlay receiver on them).  Right now, the $99 AppleTV is the go-to device to handle this.   I’ve got 3 of these in my house that, using Control4, are then piped to my various televisions, monitors, speakers, etc. 

My setup is atypical today. My home office has set of speakers for “gaming” (can’t play L4D2 without the full effect after all <g>) and another set of speakers for listening to music from the Airplay devices (so if I want to have a party where my music is playing throughout the house, I can do that or if I just want to listen to the radio or whatever while my computer is doing something else).

AirPlay tomorrow:

iOS 5 will let users stream their iPad video/audio live to any Airplay device via mirroring. Not a big deal? No, not on the surface. But in 5 years…

AirPlay in 5 years:

Nintendo is a shadow of its former self. Microsoft and Sony are struggling with their console sales because the iPhone X is powerful enough to execute some pretty impressive games and have their output stream to their AirPlay enabled Samsung (or in a nightmare scenario, an actual television made by Apple with AirPlay built in).  The iPhone isn’t mirroring the game. The iPhone itself is an extended controller for the game. The player plays the game with their Bluetooth game controller.

Meanwhile, Windows X is struggling in the enterprise because all those Apple displays now have Airplay built in and companies now just issue iPads or iPhones out to employees with a set of apps that are displayed on the monitor with the user controlling them via a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.  Even today’s iPhone could easily run a Microsoft Office suite (and you wonder why Apple is bothering making an Office suite for iOS in 2011).

By that point, desktop PCs are going to look a little silly. Big boxes under the desk with fans whirring and a bunch of wires sticking out that are dedicated to a single output? Primitive and ridiculous.

Decoupled computing

I don’t know what term will eventually be coined for this new era. But Decoupled computing makes as sense as anything else. Your processing device, input devices, and output devices will be decoupled from one another.

What about Intel, AMD, Microsoft, etc.?

Let me say this: I’m not an Apple fan.  This is a future I don’t want to see happen. But technology tends to follow the path of least resistance and the cost-reduction, user experience, and just plain obviousness of this direction makes me unsympathetic to the current stake holders who are doing little to nothing to answer this challenge.  So bookmark this post and refer to it when the inevitable anti-trust whining starts showing up in a few years.  Apple’s competitors could have done something about this now. It’s far from too late to cooperate and put together a meaningful alternative.  Decoupled computing is the future. They need to get with the program now.