IT contractors will have to look to mobile technology as the future of the industry but it will not entirely replace the PC, a leading computing magazine has claimed.

Last week Google's vice president of global ad operations, John Herlihy, told Silicon Republic that the desktop PC will be dead in three years.

Mr Herlihy had said that most research in Japan was now done on smartphones, not PCs, and everything Google is planning for the future is based around cloud systems and mobile technology.

However, Cliff Saran, managing editor of Computer Weekly Magazine, does not totally agree.

While admitting that in a few years most computer sales would be mobile technology, connectivity issues mean there will always be a place for PCs.

"Thin client software, basically web software, requires the persistence of connection to the internet, otherwise it just doesn't work. The industry hasn't figured out a good way of helping people when there isn't a good connection," said Mr Saran.

According to the European Interactive Advertising Association there are now over 121 million wireless broadband users in Europe, while 71 million Europeans use the internet on their mobile each week.