Time to say goodbye to Windows 7, the end of the PC era?

First launched back in 2009, the end of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system is near as the software giant will offer no new security updates beyond January 14, 2020. Based on the latest statistics from NetMarketShare, over 26 percent of web users are still running Windows 7 so that's a lot of computers that will be running without protection. Our advise is to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible.

In a new piece, ZD Net argues that the end of Windows 7 marks the real end of the PC era. The writer points out that the PC reached its high point around the launch of Windows 7 and that nowadays the market looks very different with the rise of the smartphone and tablets:

PC sales have been in decline for the last seven years; a slide which only ended with a small increase last year, largely because businesses needed to buy new PCs to run Windows 10, after bowing to the inevitable and upgrading.

In many scenarios and use cases the PC has been superseded by the smartphone, the tablet or digital assistants embodied in various other devices. And it's not just the PC -- Windows is no longer the defining product for Microsoft that it once was.