It’s great to have a computer guy you can trust. In today’s world you have no option but to understand technology yourself, or pay someone who does. But what if you could be more self-reliant, without actually knowing any more about technology than you do now?

Enter Zonbu, the data-safe, environmentally-safe, compact PC that runs on open-source (non-Microsoft) software. What’s so unique about it? Well it’s not really the product itself that is remarkable, but the concept. It’s one of the first commercially available computers that is sold with a contract, similar to a Cellular phone. $99 gets you the device, then you choose a plan and sign a 2-year contract — sound familiar?

  

Now, why would anyone want yet another monthly bill to worry about? That’s a good question, and therein lies the reason to why this type of product could replace me, the traditional ‘computer tech’. Consumers are paying for data security or recovery, privacy protection, online safety, etc. Significantly fewer people are really paying to have the physical hardware repaired as it is becoming more disposable each year. The parallel between cell phones and subscription based products like the Zonbu is that it’s not about the device — it’s about the service. Why waste time and money dealing with computer techs, when you could have prevented the problem in the first place?

In the future, I predict that this is the biggest change we will see in computing. Sure, technology will improve, but moreover, people will start improving how technology works with people.

Read more about this topic in this article by Matt Hartley.