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News IDC predicts continued PC slump, tablet dominance

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 29 May 2013.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. holbob

    holbob What's a Dremel?

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    I suppose desktop pc's will become the preserve of just gamers and office workstations in future, if they aren't already. Even pc gamers are moving more into the lounge and using large htpc cases. My girls are 8 and 10 and we would only consider a tablet now for them. They need to learn and master them if that is the way the world is going.
     
  3. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    People will always need a pc, They just dont need to replace it every year as was the case in the passed.

    Also does not take a genius to relise that tablets would dominate, they have been for a while now.
     
  4. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    The problem is that PCs are now so powerful, that there is no reason for people to upgrade every couple of years - a PC that is newer than 4-5 years old will be more than capable of performing the kind of tasks that 90% of users use their PCs for. Even if a PC has slowed down, a quick wipe and reinstall of Windows is all that's needed to perk a PC up.

    Add to that the fact that tablets are so much easier to use and can do everything most people use their PCs for (with the possible exception of the Office apps), and you get the reason for the slump.

    I wonder where IDC put the hybrid PC/tablet devices?
     
  5. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    It's in the article: if it has a removable keyboard then it's a tablet; if it has a fixed keyboard it's a PC, even if the screen swivels, slides or flips to form a tablet. Which means, I guess, that the Asus Transformer Slider and knockoffs thereof are tracked as PCs, unless the rule on "an Android tablet is not a PC" overrides the "if it has a non-removable keyboard, it's a portable PC."
     
  6. thom804

    thom804 Minimodder

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    This just in...

    Tablets can sell by the BILLLLIIOOOONNNSSSS, but there will always be a place for PC's. Maybe a slight downturn will prompt the big manufacturers to start making PC's more enticing.

    Myself, I have a tablet, smartphone and laptop but I would never carry out any serious work or gaming on anything other than a desktop pc. A view i'm sure i'm not alone in sharing.
     
  7. yuusou

    yuusou Multimodder

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    Forget office workstations. In the future those will either be laptops (for convenience) or thin clients.
    Even when I mention laptops, those in the future will be surface/surface pros or 12.9" iPads (lol... another .1" and it's a laptop).

    PCs will be for gaming, and even for the majority of 'gamers' (playing 1 game doesn't make you a gamer tbh) will be mainly HTPCs. You'll also have your occasional hard core nerd with a tower (somewhere near bit-tech).
     
  8. Woodspoon

    Woodspoon What's a Dremel?

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    How many times has this been proclaimed, "The PC market is dead/dying" still here!
    Almost every time a new generation of something comes out there's always someone claiming that "this will be the end of the PC market".
     
  9. aramil

    aramil One does not simply upgrade Forums

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    As I compile my own flavour of android for my tablets and for my phone. I don't think the pc is dead.

    For all their ease of use, you still need a pc to build the os and the apps etc.

    While for most poeple consuming data a tablet is ideal, most people who have to create data in any form the pc is still the king.
     
  10. LordPyrinc

    LordPyrinc Legomaniac

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    Personally, I never cared for working extended hours on a laptop. Keyboards on them can tend to be too flat and the key layout can feel a bit cramped. Biggest concern I would say is the way you look at a laptop screen versus a desktop screen. Ideally, you look at a monitor with your head straight, but when using a laptop, you are usually looking down at an angle. That tends to be a literal pain in the neck for me after hours working with a laptop or equivalent portable device. Then there is the eye strain of course when working with smaller screens. Tablets and laptops are great for portability and moderate use, but they suck at 40 hours a week or more use on the job.

    A decade from now we'll probably start seeing more chronic ailments concerning neck, other ergonomic related issues, and eye strain as companies decide that their staff will be so much more productive if they did away with the PC and gave everyone shiny new tablets.
     
  11. Gradius

    Gradius IT Consultant

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    Tablets are super limited yet. I can't think in tablet until after 2020. Unless I want something to read my manga on it.
     
  12. Tynecider

    Tynecider Since ZX81

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    Tablet's replace desktop PC's!!!!!

    OHHHH NOOOOOO!

    What about the "Computer Desk" industry?

    Did anyone stop to consider the "Computer Desk" industry plight should we all start gaming and working from tablets.

    We will see massive unrest when demand for quality flat pack desks diminishes, The militant "Computer Desk Builders" union busts a nut and goes on hunger strike

    WERE DOOMED!

    The end of the world is here I tell ya!




    140mm FANS!!!!! OHHH NOOOOOO...........


    hehe
     
  13. LightningPete

    LightningPete Diagnosis: ARMAII-Holic

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    Clearly you were past your bedtime and your sugar limit :)
     
  14. MrJay

    MrJay You are always where you want to be

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    The real turn of the tide will be when we get a generation of kids that will have almost exclusively used tablet computing, be it at home or in school. These will be the consumers tha drive the most sales away from the traditional desktop. It will seem as absurd to them to sit at a desktop as I find it to get any 'real work' done on a tablet.

    The schools I work in are already talking about 1 iPad per child and reducing the amount of available computer suites.

    Personally I think the portable revolution in computing will lead to some epic social decline. I already have to battle to get any convocation out of my friends at the pub, they are all busy checking their emails and playing angry birds. I do have an iPad mini for work, but it is used exclusively for managing tickets on our helpdesk software rattling off a few informal emails.

    Long live the desktop I say.

    Ironically sent from my iPad .....
     
  15. Silver51

    Silver51 I cast flare!

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    The school down the road issued iPads to all it's student body; even made the local papers. What they didn't say was that the attrition rate is appalling. Breakages, jailbreaking, being left at home and becoming 'lost' seem to be their biggest issues.

    Speaking to a parent st the school, she said that had she known this would happen, she would have sent her boys to a different school.

    We trialled them at work, only to find the same problems.

    That and when you allow your student body to walk around with tablets and phones, it becomes hard to teach them when they're Facebooking each other under the table.
     

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