PC Sales decline

[Mr E]

Du1point8 said:

Im assuming lots of GB of RAM and quad core then?

Plus SSD for OS and huge HD for data?

Cost much does it?

More than £1k perhaps?

Currently, a dell Latitude E series. Easily sub £600. An SSD would add ~£100 or so.
No need for a large HD for data, that lives in the cloud.

[RYH64E]

essayer said:

Combine this with corporate customers buying less PCs (a 3 year old Windows desktop is more than capable of handling most tasks)

This is certainly true, and will affect software sales as well. The only new computers I've bought for work recently have been for new applications, or tablets for staff who want them. All of the desktops work fine, with the occasional replacement monitor or hard drive, no real need to replace even though some are more than 5 years old. The computer on my desk still runs on XP, albeit with Office 2010, it all works perfectly OK.

[Mr E]

essayer said:

Combine this with corporate customers buying less PCs (a 3 year old Windows desktop is more than capable of handling most tasks)

Power users are (and have always been) a tiny fraction of PC sales.

This is a very observant point.
My desktop at home (in a traditional large box), is a Q6600 quad core with 8Gb of RAM and some form of Nvidia GFX card. It's used for general computing and for photo editing, and it performs admirably. It's probably 3 years old, and I don't have any reason to upgrade it.

The Media box under the telly is a core2duo, has 4gb of RAM and does everything we need. I upgraded it recently to add an SSD and change the fans for quieter ones. There is no need to replace it.

The iPad has replaced Sarah's netbook.

If you're a gamer, it's been a good time. An i5K series CPU and a decent GFX card (£150-200) has been able to play most things at decent quality for a good while. No need to upgrade unless you're running mega resolution.

There appears little innovation (rumours that the new AMD chip is a significant improvement aside)

[daveydave7]

The item I originally read is available on the net I didn't feel the need to link to it directly.
I too have a desktop and laptop and also a dedicated music playing mini PC. I can only really reiterate what others have said and it really does seem like PC's are being marginalised now in favour of tablets etc.
Whereas the netbook seemed to flop the I pad and it's similar ilk seem to have scored highly, one of the comments above about office PC's is spot on there really doesn't seem to be any need to have the latest Windows 8 PC in an office especially if you have a reasonably well speccd office machine running Windows 7.
I go in several offices and the amount of machines I see using XP with Office 2003 are really high so I guess in many places so long as it works why bother changing it.
I personally find Windows 8 ok to use but I can see the problems some will have with it

[essayer]

Arguably my daily PC is slightly underspecced for what I want, but it copes with heavy daily use in a software IDE running lots of components.

It's an original core i5 with 4GB and a standard HDD, so what's that, 3 years old?

I haven't felt the need to whinge to anyone about the speed, memory aside (and the fact someone thought it a good idea to install 32-bit W7) and memory is cheap enough now. So if I'm not whinging then someone who just uses Outlook, Excel etc is not going to care.

[130R]

Tablets will eat into PC sales but tablets will never replace PC's

/thread

[Hoofy]

It's inevitable. Most people don't require the sort of functionality a desktop (PC or Mac) can offer. They just require basic software er I mean apps to get basic tasks done whether it's email, surfing the web, accessing social media, improving a photo etc.

[chris watton]

I need my high-spec PC with 30" monitor for my work (work from home)

But as for my wife, I have bought laptops in the past and has never been too interested, aside from browsing the net. Since I bought her an iPad for her last birthday, she is never off it! I am a 'Hay Day widower' - she used to be a 'Rome Widow', so can't complain.

I think that bringing out W8 soon after W7 was silly, though - there's nothing wrong with 7.

[grumbledoak]

chris watton said:

I think that bringing out W8 soon after W7 was silly, though - there's nothing wrong with 7.

Windows 7 is very good. But I don't think Win8 was a mistake, I think MS may have played a blinder: Win8 just makes the old PC look like the tablet product and that is the growing market. They are still a long way behind on Phone, though I am tempted by the new Nokias.

[Flip Martian]

At work and at home for writing music/photo editing and playing the odd FPS, I use a desktop. I see people use laptops in work (contractors mainly) and wonder how the hell they manage.

That said, when I dial in from home - its on a laptop. Very restricting though, compared to a desktop (screen size, especially) so it only gets used for certain things.

For home/leisure surfing/emails etc, a laptop is fine. Or my ipad if I'm sat in bed/on the train.

[daveydave7]

chris watton said:

I need my high-spec PC with 30" monitor for my work (work from home)

But as for my wife, I have bought laptops in the past and has never been too interested, aside from browsing the net. Since I bought her an iPad for her last birthday, she is never off it! I am a 'Hay Day widower' - she used to be a 'Rome Widow', so can't complain.

I think that bringing out W8 soon after W7 was silly, though - there's nothing wrong with 7.

I think that's a good point but I also think that MS had XP way for such a length of time that when they brought out Vista then Win 7 then 8 within a relatively short period of time it appeared odd to some.
I think as the article I referred to says that windows 8 was designed to kick start touch applications and seems to have failed by some great margin.

I cannot find the original article I looked at yesterday bit this one is very similar:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/pc-sales-experi...

[Prof Beard]

I the Beard household we have:

a linux netbook - no longer used

a Win XP laptop of some great vintage - no longer used

a Win 7 netbook - only used to update my Tom Tom

a Mac iBook - used by number 2 son who is with us whilst looking for work following his Masters

a mega powerful Win 7 games PC built to order by Overclockers - used by number 2 son

an iPad 2 - used by me

an iPod Touch - used by me

assorted regular iPods

a Kindle - used by Mrs Beard

a 24" iMac - used by everyone

Interestingly - no-one has a smartphone, just regular old mobiles - I have a Vodaphone Mobile Wifi Router though

[MintyChris]

Its definitely not surprising. There will be a place for desktop pc's but it will continue to diminish.

I use a desktop for a number of reasons but probably mostly gaming.

Big screen, keyboard and mouse which I can position perfectly at a computer desk, decent sound system, good computer seat and massively powerful.

I also have a laptop and smart phone which I switch between for ease of access depending on the requirements.

To be fair most businesses and personal users don't need or want this perfect desktop setup and are quite happy to sit at a table with an adequate laptop or nip onto the notepad or mobile for a quick browse of the internet.

[Oakey]

Mr E said:

Currently, a dell Latitude E series. Easily sub £600. An SSD would add ~£100 or so.
No need for a large HD for data, that lives in the cloud.

Sure, if you want to leave your data to the whims of third party companies.

[Mr E]

Oakey said:

Sure, if you want to leave your data to the whims of third party companies.

Not quite how it works on a work machine, but your point is valid. If it's a home box, you want it local and backed up.

(my home boxes have a NAS and an off site backup routine)

[mondeoman]

I wish I'd bought a desktop and a notebook instead of a hi spec laptop.

Same as I'm tempted to bin the smartphone for a "basic" phone and a tablet.

[RYH64E]

mondeoman said:

Same as I'm tempted to bin the smartphone for a "basic" phone and a tablet.

My old smartphone didn't survive a wash/rinse cycle in the washing machine, so for a while I went back to using a basic Sony Ericsson handset, and it was great! The battery lasted all week, it fitted in my pocket nicely, and did everything I wanted. I've since got a Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (the S3 was just too big and I don't do Apple) but am seriously considering going back to the Sony, the only benefit the smartphone has for me is email access when I'm out of the office and I think I need to wean myself off of my email addiction anyway.

[Prof Beard]

I like having a basic phone - I use other stuff for net activities:

Here is my phone

[JagLover]

doogz said:

Having owned a Dell built touchscreen, convertible, W7 laptop, and now owning the new Dell touchscreen, convertible W8 laptop, I have to disagree. W8, on a touchscreen device, is far superior to W7.

Perhaps so, but what is the point of it on a non-touch screen PC or laptop?

[Art0ir]

JagLover said:

Perhaps so, but what is the point of it on a non-touch screen PC or laptop?

I don't like it (I really tried to) but our CFO loves it.