Not a chance. In St Helens you have probably got broadband to match what is known as slow broadband in the States. i.e. about 10mbps.
Here in deepest Norfolk I currently get 1.1mbps, that is fast compared to some. I can stream video but only to one computer at a time. If I'm downloading a large file (lets say Windows updates after a clean install), the kids are kicked off the net while I download it.
Having said all that, I feel quite good about the speed I get knowing that some users are still not on broadband.
Sticking stuff in a "cloud"? For most, its a long way off
No, I will explain why we don't have slow broadband
1. We are sat in between two cities, being Manchester and Liverpool. Liverpool is 10 miles away and Manchester just shy of 30. That is to the Centre of each.
2. We have fibre here already.
Sat on Virgin 50Mb/s, and I always get 50 at least, in fact I always get more, I am getting constant 60-65Mb/s
Compared to you, I can be streaming a movie, someone else streaming live TV, someone else gaming, someone else browsing the net, someone else downloading a load of files and all of us on our phones online, and there is 0 stutter. I game competatively, I can stream and play simultaneously, with 4 other users online too, and still get a maximum of 50-60 ping.
At my 50Mb/s, I am getting data down my cable faster than I would be if I were watching a film from my own computer from a Bluray disc.
OnLive is a cloud gaming service, allowing you to play some of the latest games on any system, regardless of graphics performance and with very low processing power. All of it is done from the cloud and all you need is ~6Mb/s connection. That isn't fast at all by todays standards, we had that at home here about 7 years ago, and you aren't going to need anything even close to that if you are using your computer to download pictures or music from the cloud, or even have your whole computer based there.
It won't even need you to have internet to your home at all, it will all be cellular based, like 3G and 4G is now. With 4G, you are looking at speeds of up to 1Gb/s. That is 20 times faster than my internet and 1000 times faster than yours now. Plenty for cloud computing and without a single wire for the end user. Like you do with mobile internet, you would either pay for your time, pay for an allowance at a set speed, or pay for unlimited.
I have spoken to people that are in R&D for large networking companies that set the standards we live with today. I have spoken with one of the people that researched into the 802.11 standard we have now, which is for WiFi technologies and he has stated what myself and everyone in this thread has agreed with - we will, very soon, have no hardware or computers as we know it.
you can already see it with smart phones. Apart from when compared to high-performance computers that do specialty tasks, like gaming, image rendering, video rendering, research etc, what can a smart phone do that a regular computer can't? Most people use their computers for going on the internet, listening to music, maybe watching a film and nothing else. A smart phone, this small device that has, compared to a desktop, very little power, can do all of that. That is the direction in which we are going and which we are already transitioning.
Here are some questions that come to mind:
1) Do you think that USB 3.0 will be improved on?
2) Is there a USB 4.0 on the drawing board?
3) Will Thunderbolt continue to be improved on or will it turn out to be vaporware?
Overall what do you think will happen next?
1) Possibly. If we still have a need for high-speed peripherals, yes it will. If all we need peripherals for are mice, keyboards, printers, etc, no, why would we need anything faster? The only thing taking advantage of the higher speeds is external storage devices. When everything is stored off your system, why improve upon it? Other than to improve power efficiency, there would be no change.
2) See 1. It is likely USB4 already exists and is in testing and improvement, not just on the drawing board. USB 3 has been around for a long time, it is only recently it has hit market though
3) Can't say. Though it shows promise, the better technology doesn't always come out on top. Just look at VHS vs Betamax. Betamax was smaller and had a greater capacity, yet VHS won. The reason? Mainly the porn industry who decided to use VHS and essentially drove away Betamax because the industry transitioned to VHS. A standard was set, even though there was better technology. A standard has been set with USB 3, and breaking that may prove difficult, though not impossible.