by David Philpott chairman of the Kent branch Institute of Directors

If political correctness gets you all agitated - whatever side of the fence you sit on - then I am afraid I am going to have to disappoint you.

My column this month is not about the PC of chairmen becoming chairs, nor is it about Manchester being re-named Personchester. I write about the demise of the personal computer.

It was a simple matter that got me thinking about this.

I had prepared a document for clients which stated that business matters could be transacted by electronic means. It was suggested to me that perhaps we needed to be more specific and insert the word 'email'.

"But what about fax and text?" I countered.

Then ensued one of those nostalgic discussions about how we all managed before email was invented, and progressed into the kind of conversations futurologists must have as we wondered how we might be communicating in 10 years time. Suffice it to say, we all decided to stick with my more opaque phrasing - the word 'electronic' remained.

So, I am writing this column on a personal computer, knowing full well that before very long it will be obsolete - a museum piece that will take its place alongside valve radio sets, televisions with 'tubes' in them, and Amstrad computers.

But how can I - a non techie - be so certain, I hear you asking? Well, it's not me really that is saying it. According to IBM's chief technology officer Mark Dean, we are already living in a post-pc world.

It seems the iPad and smart phones are superseding our need to sit at desks in offices or at computer stands at home.

Thirty years on from the launch of the IBM 5150 PC - a computer whose debut was widely considered to mark the beginning of the PC era - Mr Dean, the man credited with developing it, wrote in his blog recently: "While many in the tech industry questioned IBM's decision to exit the PC business at the time, it's now clear that our company was in the vanguard of the post-PC era."

He goes on to explain that he himself has ditched the PC, confessing that his primary computing device is now a tablet.

So, if this is the way it is going, will there be a new etiquette or, dare I say it, political correctness evolving, about how we use our portable devices?

Should we 'check-in' on our Facebook Wall at the restaurant we are sitting in, to let our network know we are having a business lunch with the MD of Global Enterprises Inc?

Should we conduct ourselves in the virtual world of LinkedIn as if we were at a networking event, or is it all right to do it in pyjamas?

Should we be like the comedian Jimmy Carr, who allows Twitter to track his physical movements so that 'followers' can see that he is on the M23 between gigs in Bristol and Brighton?

Don't know. Answers on a postcard please.