Credit: IHS iSuppli

Today is the 30th anniversary of the unveiling of the IBM PC, one of the landmark moments of the digital revolution. This week has brought a whole bunch of retrospectives and analysis about the evolving role of the personal computer in our lives.

IBM, which actually exited its PC business six years ago, calls this the “Post PC Era.” Microsoft, which still gets a big chunk of its revenue from Windows for PCs, prefers the phrase “PC-Plus Era.”

Whatever you call it, it’s clear that the personal computer is no longer the singular machine at the center of our lives.

Which is why this report from research firm IHS iSuppli was actually the most enlightening piece I saw on the topic this week, via the Wall Street Journal. The big takeaway: Shipments of Internet-enabled electronics devices are on track to surpass PC shipments by 2013.

That means tablets and smartphones and game consoles and TVs and pretty much everything else. In fact, it’s reaching a point where we’re no longer going to be thinking of it as the PC vs. everything else. Instead, the PC is one tool in the box, along with everything else.

Happy Birthday, IBM PC. I’ll try to remember to light a candle for my old ThinkPad tonight.

Let me make a note of it on my phone.

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