PC shipments plummeted 14% in the first quarter --worst on record

Started by rcjordan, April 10, 2013, 10:28:13 PM

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littleman

#1
April 10, 2013, 11:55:37 PM
Yeah, I think the one-OS-fits-all approach was a huge mistake. 

rcjordan

#2
April 11, 2013, 01:14:47 AM

rcjordan

#4
April 11, 2013, 10:41:44 PM
I think they're getting burned from all sides.  W8 screws up their corporate mass sales and cheap laptops/tablets/phones (now with cloud) is chewing up the retail side.

littleman

#5
April 12, 2013, 12:27:40 AM
Yeah, one thing they can do is make W8 look more like W7 on desktops and laptops that do not have a touchscreen.  In my brief time using W8 at a computer store it felt like an OS that was developed for touch-centric use so if I bought a computer that was not top of the line I'd feel like I'm missing out.  All the laptops I saw with touch were over $2k.

Also, I think a touchscreen monitor is stupid on a desktop computer, I hope they aren't going to be pushing that soon.  But then I'm posting this from a 10 year old Debian machine.

rcjordan

#6
April 12, 2013, 12:47:36 PM

Drastic

#7
April 12, 2013, 02:00:19 PM
Quote from: rcjordan on April 11, 2013, 10:41:44 PM
I think they're getting burned from all sides.  W8 screws up their corporate mass sales and cheap laptops/tablets/phones (now with cloud) is chewing up the retail side.

I think diminishing returns has a lot to do with it as well. I used to want to build a new rig every 3 years for more speed. Now, unless you're a gamer, whatever notebook or desktop you've bought or built in the last 3-5 years is probably chugging along just fine.

My first pc had then-new win95 on it. Next build was win98. Then I rode my winxp machine until Vista. I'm still on the machine I built with vista, just upgraded to SSD and win8. The only improvement I would see if I spent 1200 building a new box would be better video encode times.

rcjordan

#8
April 12, 2013, 02:33:50 PM
>chugging along

I read a headline somewhere yesterday that got to the crux of it
"The real problem is that the pc is already perfected." (roughly paraphrased)

Apps have stolen the bleeding edge market.  And for real keyboard work my xp s3 quad core steam engine hasn't yet found a new program it wouldn't run.

Brad

#10
April 12, 2013, 10:29:31 PM
Quote from: rcjordan on April 12, 2013, 10:21:58 PM
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/04/12/why_pc_sales_are_declining_old_pcs_still_work_just_fine.html


This is a huge part of it.  In the old days your PC was slow and obsolete after  year, now PC are pretty stable.  The upgrade action has moved to mobile OS's and phone and tablet hardware.  Everybody is dumping scarce money into upgrading phones and tablets.

BoL

#11
April 13, 2013, 12:36:32 AM
My 4 year old sony vaio is still plodding along. Battery is effectively dead & the plastic from the power button has fell off. Still works fine though. I'll replace it when it no longer boots up.

bill

#12
April 14, 2013, 02:21:47 AM
My Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop finally gave up the ghost after 12 years. It was literally held together with duct tape. The hinge for the screen had worn out years previous. I can't count how many times this machine was dropped or yanked off the desk when someone tripped on the LAN cable. Actually, the thing still works but I got tired of patching it and listening to the death moans of the old bearings in the fans. This was an old kitchen/living room PC that was a communal PC. It was always on.

I'm glad I paid the extra money for this laptop back in the day. It was about $4000 at the time, but it had a desktop 2.2GHz chip, 2GB RAM, a great video card, and even a DVD optical drive. It started life on Windows XP and ended with Windows 7. These specs aren't bad even for today's lower end laptops. It simply worked for years and year and years.

After much searching and researching I finally got a replacement. A big all in one unit with a 24" touchscreen, core i7, 8GB RAM, 3TB HDD. Hopefully this one will last just a long as the one it replaced.

QuoteAlso, I think a touchscreen monitor is stupid on a desktop computer, I hope they aren't going to be pushing that soon.

After several weeks of using Windows 8 on this thing I notice that hardly anyone uses the touch aspect of it. The keyboard and mouse are the preferred method of control. Actually, I could have probably saved some money if I hadn't gone for the touch screen.  However, after using Windows 8 for almost a year on regular desktops I figured I should have at least one touchscreen to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently not much.

TL:DR My hardware just lasts for years. There's no reason to replace stuff that still works.
A 24" touchscreen monitor sounded good, but in practice I hardly use it.

I don't see how Windows 8 can be blamed for this decline. The operating system looks a little different, but it functions just fine...in fact better than Windows 7.

rcjordan

#13
April 14, 2013, 11:50:40 AM
I'm only going touchscreen on the new replacement laptop for 3 reasons, 2 of them very minor;

3 - Once in a while when working in an easy chair or bed, it's more convenient to tap the screen than work the glidepad. Also, I've absent-mindedly tapped the screen a few times on the old laptop while engaged in what I'm reading or researching.

2 - The laptop is a legit business expense, so the taxman pays half.

1 - Future-proofing.  Actually, i'm already in the future with my "internet of things" sensor array project and the UI is going to be touch control of remote devices connected by bt4.
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