Mark Dean, the chief engineer of IBM’s original IBM PC, says that his main computer is now a tablet – though he failed to disclose which model he uses.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]The revelation came in a recent blog post whose title should ring familiar with people who paid attention to Apple’s rollout of the iPad 2: IBM Leads the Way in the Post-PC Era.” Steve Jobs similarly described a “post-PC era” when he introduced the iPad 2 at an event in San Francisco in March.

August 12 marks the 30th anniversary of IBM’s announcement of the original IBM Personal Computer. He said he’s proud of what he and his company have accomplished, but he’s also pleased that IBM got out of the PC business in 2005 when it sold off its ThinkPad laptop business to Lenovo.

“When I helped design the PC, I didn’t think I’d live long enough to witness its decline. But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they’re no longer at the leading edge of computing,” said Dean.

Now, said Dean, PCs are being replaced, not by devices, he said, but by ideas. “These days, it’s becoming clear that innovation flourishes best not on devices but in the social spaces between them, where people and ideas meet and interact. It is there that computing can have the most powerful impact on economy, society and people’s lives.”

For his part, Dean has left IBM research to become chief technology officer for IBM Middle East and Africa, located in the Gulf state of Dubai, where he hopes to direct IBM to help make an impact on the African continent. “While the PC revolution has had a tremendous impact on the world, I believe that the work that IBM and others are doing in Africa could have an even bigger impact over the long haul,” said Dean.

[Hat tip: CNET]