If that happens, it's going to create a moment of national angst.

Headlines would declare: Chinese firm becomes world's top PC maker, displacing U.S., or, more simply, Chinese firm now leads world in PCs.

A Lenovo lead in the PC market would prompt widespread commentary about how the its place in the world as the tech leader.

Some others in the technology chattering class could try to rationalize it, declaring that the PC is just a commodity and that we've entered the .

That would be wrong. We're no more in the post-PC era than we are in the post-car era. The PC is, and will remain, a monumentally important part of getting work done.