Google Home: A Device for Our Post-Device Future

Last month, Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai made a bold statement in a letter to shareholders. After describing the evolution of computers since the nineties, from hulking desktop machines to petite portable devices, he wrote, “Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the ‘device’ to fade away.” His point was that, because computing technology is becoming smaller and more powerful, computers can be built in all kinds of forms. Building devices is no longer hard. The difficult part—and the part that will distinguish products from one another—is the experience that computers facilitate.