Microsoft’s Next-Gen PC Design Competition Shows Off Many Innovative Ideas

Question: Does the image above look more like an elaborate pen holder or a PC? If you answered “pen holder,” you’re not alone, but you’re still dead wrong. This is one of several entries for Microsoft’s Next-Gen PC Design Competition, which featured many innovations that were designed to make computers more accessible to people all over the world. Take the colorful entry above for example, each one represents a hardware component that can be swapped out with others. This way, even people with almost no knowledge of computer engineering can upgrade their computer. Other entries included a simple PC that can be used in third-world countries, one that teaches children to use computers, and an Asian-inspired computer that uses a chopstick-like device and a touch screen.

I designed a computer myself once. And when I say computer, I mean “metal box filled with rocks that I sold on the street corner for $20.” Let that be a lesson to you, kids: never trust a street corner computer salesman.