Nicholas Deleon of CrunchGear posted an interesting article that describes the recent movement in the Japanese electronic market away from PCs and toward smaller devices that offer similar features. Deleon reports that, in Japan, PC shipments have fallen five consecutive quarters, and analysts are beginning to wonder out loud if PCs have a future in Japan at all. He askes, “Why use Safari on a MacBook when you can whip out your iPhone and do the same thing?”

Similarly, the AP recently featured the story of one college-bound Japanese student who lists headphones, a digital camera and a new video game console as college-life must-haves but fails to make any mention of the need for a PC. For the price, the student says, PCs aren’t worth it. The AP reports that the PC’s role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-size computers, advanced Internet-connected game consoles, and digital video recorders with terabytes of memory.

Perhaps Japan will only be the first major market to see a decline in personal computer use some 25 years after it revolutionized household electronics—could this be the picture of things to come in other countries?