News Traditional PC market continues to shrink

Greetings!

You can read emails on the smartphone, creating or replying may be more difficult depending on the complexity of the text, attachements, etc.

 

The only reason desktops aren't replaced entirely is because most laptops still make crappy gaming systems and workstations. The reason laptops aren't replaced by tablets yet is because there's still plenty of people who like physical keyboards and have a program or 2 that they need x86 Windows for. I have a strong feeling that this drop in sales will plateau within a couple years, when most people have phased out their old platforms and have a final decision in which platform they prefer. Tablets and phones will likely always have a stable sales increase, as they'll be able to perform more tasks (and more complicated too) while staying within the same power envelope.

But overall, I don't see desktop PCs or laptops being phased out in a long time. I find laptops today pretty disappointing in terms of price vs performance vs battery life.

 

Yes, reading works great...answering, especially when longer, is a pain (hence the copy-pasting, which is also a pain)

 

Businesses just upgraded to Win7, Heck I know some that still use XP (proprietory software). It'l take them a decade to move to the next OS (then)

 

Market saturation. Everyon has one and for basic usage people don't really care as long as it works.

I still see Pentium 4 boxes at work. And that's scary, but telling about general usage patterns. People can't justify spending the big bucks upgrading usually. Coupled with the noticeable performance wall being eliminated with the C2D era (okay they're not that fast, but they do ok) and it makes upgrades not very compelling.

TL;DR: 6 year old PC technology is still serviceable for most folks.

 

There is so many reasons for this.

1. is W8.

2. Is no games to drive upgrades. If Half-Life 3 came out tomorrow PC sales would jump again.

3. People are sticking with old since its cheaper to repair. I've replaced 3 laptop screens and ASUS just replaced an HDD slightly over its warranty for free on another.

4. On the road use has transitioned to the portability of tablets instead of laptops. Grant it if laptops could all shrink to the size of the Razer Blade, it would help.

 

1. Not true, W8 really isn't as bad as one would imagine, even with all the outrage PCs are still selling, there is no connection that the OS caused a drop in sales. The more obvious answer is how saturated the market already is.

2. Not true either, we just think so but let's be honest, it's not the games but the engines that haven't progressed. Personally i don't mind one way or another, saves me money and I still upgrade every 2-3 gens anyhow.

3. People stick to old not because its cheaper to repair, but because there isn't a huge discernible difference in performance to the average user anymore.

4. Yes tablets have replaced the casual email/youtube PC user. It sure as hell hasn't replaced the need for a proper keyboard for typists though.