PC sales certainly haven’t been good over the past year or so, but this past quarter was record-setting bad.
Shipments of PCs fell 14% worldwide last quarter, according to IDC. It was the worst yearly decline since IDC began tracking the data in 1994.
Al things end sooner or later
People simply don’t need to upgrade their desktop computers very often anymore. When Intel came out with the Core 2 processors, they had a product that was sufficiently fast for most everyone using common software like Word or Excel. And those computers from five or six years ago are still perfectly capable for those tasks…at least for the majority of computer users.
Add a hard drive for more storage, a bit of memory, upgrade to Windows 7 and those same computers will be good for quite a while longer. My sister is using one of my old castoffs…a Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz processor, 8gbs of ram, 250gb hard drive and she’s perfectly happy with it. I’ve built three new computers since that one, but I’m not a typical user.
And more and more people are using tablets and phones for light entertainment and internet surfing. The role of the pc has diminished.
Also, don’t underestimate the negative impact Windows 8 is having on PC/laptop sales. My wife works for a company that sells electronics, computers and tech services to local, state and federal government and she says many PC sales are with the stipulation they come with Windows 7 and not Windows 8. Windows 8 is probably responsible for half, or more, of that 14% drop.
Also indirectly is the Microsoft stipulation that laptops with Windows 8 are to include touch screens, so now all the low end ultrabooks, which were becoming mainstream, are now crippled for screen image quality, due to the compromise on screen quality to offset the additional cost of the touchscreen components. Most people refuse to move up another $300 to get what they could with Windows 7 6 months ago, and they’re certainly not buying the low end rubbish.
As stated above, processing power in desktop machines surpassed the vast majority of users requirements 5-6 years ago, and apart from power users and gamers, no one actually need to upgrade their desktop pcs, unless something breaks down.
Even on the gaming front, requirements have become stale as games are developed for the lowest common denominator (10yr old consoles), and PC games are an after thought.
Monitor resolutions have stagnated, cpu requirements have stagnated, the only progression is in storage, and that’s a trivial retrofit for most desktop machines.
Recently, my workplace has started swapping hdds for SSDs in 3yr old machines, rather than replacing entire computers (except servers). My i7(v1) work pc just recently was retrofitted with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd, 3tb storage drive and Windows 8 (because I’m the guinea pig) keeping everything else.
My personal pc has a 4yr old cpu + motherboard & the only recent additions are video card, ssd and bluray drive, and I’m a nerd!
When the nerds stop upgrading, the pc industry is in trouble.
[QUOTE=debro;2684010]Also indirectly is the Microsoft stipulation that laptops with Windows 8 are to include touch screens,[/QUOTE]Do you have a link as we sell Win 8 laptops and have never heard of this
[QUOTE=Adbear;2684015]Do you have a link as we sell Win 8 laptops and have never heard of this[/QUOTE]
Actually, I don’t, and I can’t find the article on slashdot any more. The closest I could find is this article from an unrelated site.
It was posted somewhere 6-12months ago, I recall.
Maybe it was intel that mandated it …
However, it could have just been microsoft advising (minimum) requirements for touchscreens in laptops, rather than mandating touchscreens for all laptops.
Now that I think about it, it’s probably more the case, because the low-end windows 8 netbook market would instantly be wiped out by the additional cost of the touchscreen, eliminating the cost-benefit of netbooks.
[QUOTE=UTR;2683986]Also, don’t underestimate the negative impact Windows 8 is having on PC/laptop sales. My wife works for a company that sells electronics, computers and tech services to local, state and federal government and she says many PC sales are with the stipulation they come with Windows 7 and not Windows 8. Windows 8 is probably responsible for half, or more, of that 14% drop.[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t doubt that 14% has something to do with W8 and how it was forced upon users and buyers gave a sour taste in their mouth. I even read a article in the local papers stating companies are buying W8 machine but then reformatting and putting W7 on them as they just started to migrate to W7. Now if that isn’t telling enough I don’t know what is to M$
If anyone wants to see the impact W8 might be having on PC sales all they need to do is go to Newegg and compare the reviewer ratings between W7 and W8. It is a staggering drop.
Talked to a tech for a local chain of banks and they are going to have update some computers from xp but they will not go to windows 8.
I sometimes think the people at Microsoft live in there own world and I think it is Mars or beyond there
[QUOTE=UTR;2684090]If anyone wants to see the impact W8 might be having on PC sales all they need to do is go to Newegg and compare the reviewer ratings between W7 and W8. It is a staggering drop.[/QUOTE]
Your not kidding 84% for and 81% against…that is a big swing…at both extremes…that tells alot of how bad a O/S is coming off.
[QUOTE=samlar;2684134]Talked to a tech for a local chain of banks and they are going to have update some computers from xp but they will not go to windows 8.
I sometimes think the people at Microsoft live in there own world and I think it is Mars or beyond there[/QUOTE]
I think they expect us to drop the laptop and desktop and go touchscreen aka Ipad design. I highly doubt it - my desktop is the main and aka NAS machine and WAN server and no touch screen will fit that bill.
[QUOTE=Kerry56;2683985]People simply don’t need to upgrade their desktop computers very often anymore. When Intel came out with the Core 2 processors, they had a product that was sufficiently fast for most everyone using common software like Word or Excel. And those computers from five or six years ago are still perfectly capable for those tasks…at least for the majority of computer users.
Add a hard drive for more storage, a bit of memory, upgrade to Windows 7 and those same computers will be good for quite a while longer. My sister is using one of my old castoffs…a Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz processor, 8gbs of ram, 250gb hard drive and she’s perfectly happy with it. I’ve built three new computers since that one, but I’m not a typical user.
And more and more people are using tablets and phones for light entertainment and internet surfing. The role of the pc has diminished.[/QUOTE]
And also note that you tend to partially upgrade your PC, in comparison to completely replace it, and hence it won’t be counted.
Also, you are more likely to buy parts from retailers that aren’t necessarily participating in the survey.
The absolute worst part of these numbers is that rather than microsoft saying:
“Oh crap, windows 8 is a complete disaster, lets go back to windows 7 desktop interface”,
Microsoft is more likely to say:
“Thank god we moved to a tablet-like interface, the bottom just dropped out of the PC market, and we made the tablet gui change and move to tablets just in time” 
Hard disk were the only bottleneck left, but now with SSD that barrier is gone.
I think, no, the REAL barrier remains the data through-put of memory controllers to any storage device. SSDs in RAID0 can take a lot more, theoretically, but the amount of data passed thru is still being held back by the memory controllers. We’ll see what advances Intel decides to push in the next year.
I’ll bet that Windows 9 will be based on the Windows 7 design… but with one important difference: 9 will be a subscription-based OS. If you fail to renew your OS, your computer will be inoperable. That’s when maybe 1/6 of Windows users will finally discover Linux (the rest will either lie down and take it, or switch to Macs). Linux will slowly start to penetrate the desktop market.
Unless, of course, React OS becomes stable by then, in which case, it will probably become the new defacto standard.
I’m not surprised about the drop off in PC sales, I expect there are many reasons for this, but I’m sure it’s Windows 8 that’s one of the the main causes. I keep trying it and no matter what I do, it slows me down and Microsoft blaming me for being to stupid to use it is very annoying, not a great way to woo customers. Not only that it looks awful.
My wife bought me a 10 inch Android tablet as a “good boy” present, yes, very nice, but as a whole bunch of my friends have found, looking down on a touch screen gives us all a neck ache. Propping them up on the fairly flimsy stands is a pain as the tablet slides away from you when touched. Resort to blue tack? Or jam it against something. Mmmm, maybe a notebook without a touch screen would be better; Perhaps?
In many other threads, some writers have proffered the argument, “Little or no need to upgrade since hardware advances aren’t that significant” based on the primary applications.
Over on Tom’s Hardware,there’s an article comparing some 5-year-old Intels (Celerons and Core2-Duos) vs more modern i3s. “For some games, the newer CPUs are great. Otherwise…” is a general sentiment of the article.
As long as the applications aren’t giving new services, then the question becomes “Why spend new money to do the same old things?” Speed is one factor, and I succumb to that. I’ve got 2-hour-long database rebuilds occasionally. It’s nice to trim 30 minutes off of that, but I can do that using the old CPU & Motherboard and put the databases on two Velociraptors with a greater speed impact than an old AthlonII vs a modern i7.
And taking a 120-minute project down to 75-80 minutes is great, statistically - but am I TRULY interested in watching a 75-80 minute screen instead of a 120-minute screen? NO. In fact, if I have to do this at lunch-time, I have to make sure to be back EARLIER than a 2-hour lunch!! (Gee - wot a shame!)
[QUOTE=voxsmart;2687104]Propping them up on the fairly flimsy stands is a pain as the tablet slides away from you when touched. Resort to blue tack? Or jam it against something. Mmmm, maybe a notebook without a touch screen would be better; Perhaps?[/QUOTE]
That’s the conundrum if you have to do that with a tablet then a laptop with more usage and webcam and more feature will more then better benefit one that does more then tablet can provide. Once you have to add a keyboard or mouse to the tablet guess what that product exist already it’s called a netbook or mid-size laptop that has way more power and does a greater variety for your needs.
[QUOTE=voxsmart;2687104]My wife bought me a 10 inch Android tablet as a “good boy” present, yes, very nice, but as a whole bunch of my friends have found, looking down on a touch screen gives us all a neck ache. Propping them up on the fairly flimsy stands is a pain as the tablet slides away from you when touched. Resort to blue tack? Or jam it against something. Mmmm, maybe a notebook without a touch screen would be better; Perhaps?[/QUOTE]
If I didn’t have the keyboard dock for the Asus TF300T I bought then I would rarely use it. IMO, the idea of using a tablet is better the the reality of using one.