But what the phrase really means is: "X is Dead, Long Live Y"
with x being the diseased king, and y the rightful heir and new king.
As wikipedia states [1]:
The phrase is a traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch
And...
"Given the memorable nature of the phrase (owing to epanalepsis), as well as its historic significance, the phrase crops up regularly as a headline for articles, editorials, or advertisements on themes of succession or replacement."
That's why bigdubs was right.
But finally... most probably the successor and new monarch could be something like what Ballmer said to The Seattle Times [2]:
I think when you look forward, our core capability will be software, (but) you'll probably think of us more as a devices-and-services company.
Devices+Services is the new king. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, are all going this route.
Yes - that's precisely what the original poster was referring to. "Hardware (The old, legacy, big manufacturer, high margin, centrally built) is dead, Long live Hardware (The new, on-demand built, small manufacturers, lower margin, distributed build).
I'm sure there will be many more generations of hardware as well - indeed, the next big generation will probably be some form of print-at-home, then perhaps biological - who knows.
There will be many iterations - but they all will consist on something physical replacing the last generation.
With that said - I appreciate your meta-point, that the concept of "Selling Hardware Alone" without the devices/services associated it, is going out of vogue with the highly-valued companies here in North America. Point made.
