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Fiorina Says HP May Get Out Of The PC Business
Mikelgan writes: "Interex (the global HP user's group) is reporting that HP CEO Carly Fiorina told USA Today that HP may get out of the PC business altogether if the merger with Compaq fails. Here's the story."
I thought the general consensus is that if the merger fails that she will booted out.
While Compaq is trying to improve itself for the merger, it seems that HP's only game plan is the merger. Now that's some real corporate foresight!
Bah... I want Carly Fiona to experience some pain for what she did to the HP calc division.
From my vantage point as an IT application manager, a merger between HP and Compaq sits well.
I'm not really interested in either company these days. Compaq basically destroyed itself and the companies it purchased. HP is doing the same to itself.
Their products aren't attractive to me (although both offer a couple cool products), and I have no reason to trust any service offerings offered by HP, Compaq, or a combination of both.
I particularly have to laugh at their consumer line of PCs, with the clear colored plastic which is supposed to make them "cute" like an iMac. Not even close.
So as far as I care, it's up to the shareholders. I guess the choice is to have one big sucky company, or two big sucky companies.
HP getting out of the business leaves very few PC makers left in the retail market. You'll be left with Compaq, Gateway (at their stores), Apple (in both Retail and their own stores), and Sony (in 'select' stores).
Dell is still all mail order and with IBM and Toshiba beginning to transition what's left of their PC lineups over to web based orders as well, customers will walk into CompUSA, Sears, or Circuit City and will face themselves with two choices: Compaq or Apple?
I think this is a good decision by HP. They make a killing off of printers and cartridges, as well as scanners and other peripherals. With margins in the PC market severely low (unless you're Apple), this could be a good move for them.
This seems to be yet another spin control move. This is not what she said or has been saying. I know, it's hard to believe that the press can misquote or be swayed by a spin meister but at least in this case it would seem to be true. From the inside this whole thing has been really wierd... and kinda fun.
In a time of universal lies, Telling the Truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell
Everyone focuses on the PCs. Where the big gains are expected is in servers and services.
In a time of universal lies, Telling the Truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell
Would you, or anyone else, know how HP's PC division is doing financially?
HP used to be a company that made good test equipment, sold it at the highest prices, and supported it very well (also at the highest price). Now that's been spun off to the bizarrely named Agilent, leaving HP with the low-margin PC's and printers. The trouble with making PC's is that the market is very price competitive -- you've got to cut prices to just above cost to sell anything. Maybe you can make it up in volume. Or maybe you let your expenses get a teeny bit too high, and you're losing money every time you make a sale.
Just wondering how HP weathered that change, from a "don't just do things right, do them better at any cost" culture to low-margin commodity manufacturing?
Would that also mean no more HP notebooks? That would be a real shame! I own a HP Omnibook 6000 and it's one hell of a notebook. You want one. Trust me. :)
printers and scanners ?
once one of the best R&D companies of the planet reduced to a mere peripheral manufacturer is not a god thing.
this Fiorina chick is realy screwing the company. I was trying to sell my HP48G, but now I'll keep it for the sake of the good old times.
What ? Me, worry ?
Printers? Scanners?
Good luck Fiorina... I learned long ago that HP wasn't the only game in town providing these products. To my suprise, other products are better.
I guess there are still millions of PC owners who only know Staples, Best Buy and Circuit City [etc] for their computing needs.
Well, they always have their faulty CDRW products.
Get your Unix fortune now!
Did anyone else see the Red Herring 'Open Letter' (not yet online, got the dead tree yesterday), saying "Quit Carly Quit" in no uncertain terms?
HP. HP had a powerful business. 'Scopes, testing equipment, laser printers, calculators. People paid for that brand name. Like IBM, no one ever got fired for buying a LaserJet.
Guess what, those days are *GONE* and gone for good. I blame Fiorina, and a lot of other folks do to.
they might as well kiss some of their largest customers goodbye. I know that my company is planning on purchasing about 100K new pc workstations over the next two years. They are also killing off MPE, which accounts for about 600 $250K and up systems that are going to be coming end of life in two years. I would suspect that without PC workstations, it would be better for us to package deal with IBM for workstations and AIX servers instead of only having HP her with HP-UX. I think HP would be wise to give Fiorina the boot. She has wrecked that company.
The merger is her 'child' she will not let anything happen to it. She would go under with its failure anyway. So I think that these comments are made deliberately so it will seem as 'lesser evil' to do the merger and silence some opposing voices.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
...HP go out of business now.
I mean what does HP do if it doesn't do PCs, because we all know that Fiorina wants to get rid of HP-UX and all of that GOOD stuff.
Yes, that leaves flimsy INKJET PRINTERS! Cool. And digital cameras. Wait, they suck at those, so just printers.
Carly has successfully driven this company into ruin. As she did with her previous ventures. Why doesn't she just file chapter 11 right now to be done with it.
Face it, Carly has driven this company into ruin.
"HP Invent"
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. -Ayn Rand
Well yes, both the Hewletts and the Packards have said that they will vote (15-18% of the stock) against the merger, leading to a really ah...interesting proxy fight. Better that the soaps. All news should be looked at as an attempt at spin by one side or another.
In a time of universal lies, Telling the Truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell
PCs are simply too easy to build. Anyone can do it. The real issue becomes PRICE, and the big companies are caught between having the power to leverage incredible prices out of vendors, and being to big to move the product out the door before the price loses its luster.
It is a matter of time before there are no pre-built PCs at the mid-level on up- that they are all built-to-order and sold at the price of the components at that exact moment. I'm not going to make any quotes, but there is (obviously) an incredible level of depreciation per week for a PC sitting on a store shelf. Is anyone making money these days selling pre-built PCs? I know HP also sells built-to-order boxes...but who would pay their relatively high price?
As a bit of an aside: and this says as much about Sam's Club (I hate that store, they could do Springer auditions there... but I had to go there for work purchases occasionally) but I'd see these HPs that were at least a year old on the shelves... with their year old price tag (still at a premium). What an undignified way to sell PCs!
Both companies seem to have made serious blunders at its lower level consumer lines that would certainly make me think twice about their server/networking products.
Imagine a world with nothing but white box builders.... OK, that will never happen.... imagine a world where everyone just builds their own PC.... no, that will never happen either- not that it couldn't.
Those that suggest you "dance like no one is watching" really want to see you make a complete fool of yourself.
If Hewlett Packard were to pull out of the PC (note, big if) it would be the end of some of the best desktop and server products in the industry.
From their consumer, soho, business and workstation PCs (such as the Brio, Vectra and Kayak ranges) all the way up to their server offerings, HP have consistently produced top-notch products.
Well designed, reliable machines with excellent utilities (is there a management suite out there that's better than TopTools?) backed up by a professional and knowledgeable support structure have made HP PCs a dream to work with - as both a end user and a system administrator.
Sure, the printing business may be the company's major cash cow but it's its systems that really impress me.
I've been fortunate to have reviewed PCs from dozens of manufacturers, and I can honestly say that if I bought a PC (I tend to build my own) there would only be two companies I'd buy from. HP is one of them.
But let's be realistic here. HP has a massive installed user base, including many blue chip corporates. It's not going to abandon making PCs and those customers (many of whom will have support contracts that guarantee the availability of their preferred desktop and servers for years to come) any more than it's going to abandon its print business.
From the sounds of it, this is classic boardroom spin ("if X doesn't happen then we'll be forced to do Y") aimed squarely at getting Fiorina the votes she desperately needs to push through the HP/Compaq merger on which she seems to have mortgaged her career.
Quite frankly, if this comment was a serious statement of HP's intent then it would have been made to a more respected media outlet, such as the Wall Street Journal or a Ziff Davis title, or via a major press conference, rather than the less-than-heavyweight USA Today.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
As of this post, CNET News is running a 13 part article on "visionary" people in the IT industry. Fiorina is listed on this, as is Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and a handful of other forgetables.
Yet Steve Jobs, who critics and pundits agree has great vision and has molded and changed the PC community dramatically despite the fact his computer does not make actual PCs, isn't listed?
And Carly has been with HP for about 2 years and hasn't really made any significant impact there beyond driving their stock price down.
HP makes decent printer hardware (except that POS OfficeJet series, which I own) and its PC hardware (which I worked on for 2 years) is adequate, albeit unremarkable. Perhaps Fiorina's departure could kill two birds with one stone--HP's PC business (so they can concentrate on what they do best--printers) and Compaq (whose PCs are among the rattiest things to maintain in the market).
/.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Believe me, the bitch had an impact. Not a good one though!
Ask people who work there and you will see what I mean. Many people left because of the changes she brought... HP used to be a good company to work for, things change!
HP not doing well in the PC business is no news. It was already the center discussion of company meetings 4 years ago. HP at that time was saying that it could not keep in business if it was not in the top 3 (go figure why!) and it was already fourth at that time, and still slipping down.
It was making fun of Dell for being nothing more than a Pizza delivery company, and were discussing ways of getting back up where they belonged.
The only department making big profits was the printer division and the PC repair one (not a good sign huh!)
Anyway, I for one am not going to thread any tears for HP. The HP way, has become the HP no way!
Black holes occur when God divides by zero.
How about the "agilent" mess - she should be gone for that alone
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
For the Record
Posted January 16, 2002
The following memo was written to Embedded and Personal Systems (EPS)
employees from EPS President Iain Morris to set the record straight
regarding recent press reports on the future of Hewlett-Packard's PC
business.
Dear All,
I would like to wish each of you a happy and productive 2002.
I'm writing to you to set the record straight regarding recent press reports
on the future of our PC business. You may have seen an article this Monday
in USA Today which claims that Carly "warned that, should it [the merger]
fail, HP's vaunted printer and imaging businesses would be damaged and HP
might have to shut down its personal computer division."
This is not the first time the press has zeroed in on the notion that we
should exit the PC business. Rather than suggesting we exit PCs, Carly was
explaining the importance of the merger -- in the context of a range of
strategic alternatives -- as a way to fix our PC business. She was also
responding to Walter Hewlett's assertion that PCs are a challenging business
(yet he fails to offer any thoughts on how to improve it).
According to the full transcript of the interview, what Carly said was: "It
[the merger] allows us to fix our PC business. We can't get out of our PC
business. If I didn't care about laying off people, I could just shut it
down. But if I shut it down, I'd have to lay off a lot more than 15,000
people across two companies over several years. So, we have to fix our PC
business. And fixing our PC business requires volume and distribution
capability."
To further clarify her remarks, the 15,000 figure has been included in our
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It refers to the
estimated number of employee reductions of the combined HP and Compaq
workforce, which will total about 15,000 people. It does not specifically
refer to the PC business. The reductions are expected to occur during the
first two years after the merger closes and will be achieved through a
combination of targeted job reductions and attrition.
It is important for you to know that HP remains committed to the PC
business. By merging with Compaq, we believe the cost-savings from the
anticipated synergies and economies of scale will lower the cost structure
of our combined PC business and have a positive impact on margins. We will
also be able to leverage the significant progress Compaq has made developing
its direct distribution capabilities to create a more flexible distribution
model for the combined company and help us address this important industry
issue.
By combining HP's strength in the consumer PC business and Compaq's strength
in the commercial PC business, we will create a more balanced industry
leader. We also intend to create sustainable value in our PC and other
personal systems businesses by innovating across emerging categories and
delivering a new generation of connected access and embedded devices.
The merger also will provide important benefits to HP's imaging and printing
franchise (also mentioned in the USA Today article). By improving operating
margins in our other business segments, we expect to increase our investment
in core IPS research and development and new IPS initiatives such as digital
imaging and digital publishing - investments that are crucial to maintaining
our leadership in the IPS business. According to Carly: "Imaging and
Printing is not a cash cow. It is a growth engine that has to be invested in
if we're to capture the real growth opportunities in Imaging and Printing
going forward."
Our vision is to become a premier provider of the end-to-end solutions our
customers now demand. That requires us to be a leader in imaging and
printing and computing and services. It requires us to be a leader in both
the enterprise and the consumer space. PCs remain an important part of the
end-to-end solutions we provide.
In closing, let me thank all of you again for staying focused on the
business at hand, and for continuing to help HP emerge an even stronger
competitor when the economy rebounds. Here's to delighting our customers,
delivering results and beating the competition.
Thank you,
Iain
The problem with the PC business is that nobody makes any real money from PC's except for Intel and Microsoft. It's a perfect picture of the problem with commodity vs. non-commodity equipment. People consider PC's to be commodity hardware, but that's not the case. A PC is built mostly with commodity hardware -- everything except the CPU and the operating system. Uncoincidentally, the makers of those two components are the only ones able to set their price points high enough to make any real money. (One has some decent competition, and therefore can't set their prices too high... the other has a monopoly and can set their prices outrageously high.)
This is why the fall of the MS monopoly is inevitable. Once the market realizes that the OS can be commoditized as well, Microsoft will be lucky to keep any of the low end at all. Why sell a $500 computer containing a $100 operating system, when you can sell a $400 computer with a free one?
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
HP was the last half-way decent retail computer a consumer could buy. No, I'm not talking about Dell, because a lot of less technically experienced people don't feel comfortable ordering their computer over the phone/internet.
I sell computers at Circuit City. It's a pretty good way to pay my way through school. If you walk into any retail store (Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.), you'll see four major desktop brands: HP, Sony, Compaq, and E-Machines. Most stores will usually have one or two more laptop brands (usually Toshiba and possibly Fujitsu). For desktops, HP is the only one of those brands listed that's even halfway decent. Compaq's Presarios are heavily integrated, cut-$2-off-this-win-modem-price pieces of crap. A lot of semi-savvy customers refuse to buy Compaq because of their previous experiences with them (it didn't help that their Presario line used to use proprietary RAM upgrades, either). E-Machines are shoddily assembled completely integrated computers with one thought in mind: Price. Which works well for folks who need a $400 or $500 computer package, but it won't do much for them. Sony's build quality is at least decent, but their occasional use of proprietary equipment, and their (usually) higher price relative to similarly equipped Desktops usually precludes them from the running. And don't get me started on the fact that they phased out last year's models (SDRAM-based P4 units) in mid-November and haven't supplied their retail partners with 845 chipset-based units yet.
That leaves good ol' reliable HP. Their PCs always use industry standard equipment, and the build quality on their desktops is very nice. Yeah, they charge a little bit too much for their monitors, but their inkjets are the best in the business (yeah, we techs sneer at inkjets, but you'd be surprised how much most folks like them).
Well, here's to hoping that this doesn't happen. Pavillion PCs will be sorely missed at my store.
Yeah, I agree, except they're still unequaled for a plain old high-volume black and white laser printer. (Forget HP for color lasers though! Ick!)
The rest of their printing and imaging division could vaporize tomorrow, and the world would be better off for it. They haven't made a solid, quality scanner since the days of the ScanJet 3 and 4 series, and all the HP inkjet printers use print head technology that's 3 generations old.
Thus "No wait hang on, that's gone too is'nt it?"
I thought the addition of SB might get me modded down, but flamebait? Does this mean that there are actually people here who like this SB? Or did the SB herself mod me down under a few accounts she keeps here for times like this when her good name is being tarnished? I rather thought she was doing a fine job all by herself.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
this story yesterday on CBS Market Watch states that HP is looking to close a plant in France, outsource their PC manufacturing and all of this is independent of the CPQ merger.
the story above may be a move to put pressure on approving the merger.
/* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
Steve Jobs introduces the new iMac and a short time later, the head of HP, Carly Fiorina declares that they might get out of the PC industry. Coincidence? I think not!
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
First of all, HP is far from being free of the proprietary noose. I've dealt with a number of people who bought HP Pavillions, only to have all sorts of compatibility problems when they tried to add an upgraded video board and disable on-board video. In fact, some models barely allow *any* expansion cards at all. You have to take what you get with the computer, and that's about it.
IMO, any PC that can't be easily expanded with upgrade cards is defective and worthless. The PC as "endlessly upgradable and reconfigurable white box" is one of the main reasons we still deal with so many PC architecture headaches today (IRQ conflicts, I/O addresses, DMA channels). If you're going to skip the compatibility with 3rd. party hardware, why even use the Intel platform anymore? Otherwise, you have all the bad without any of the good.
Bull, HP and Compaq have identical product lines.
There is absolutely no way the combined company will have sales equal to both companies operating independently.
Darn, and I so enjoyed slashing the living shit out of my hands on the insides of those old Vectras. Too bad we can't preserve that experience for the next generation, eh? Physical pain coupled with a poorly performing computer; now there's a corporate legacy.
--saint
Nope, when she has destroyed HP enough look for her to show up in some cushy VP job at Microsoft.
This seems to be a viable option for many "leaders" in the IT industry. One wonders sometimes if the fix is in way before people like Fiorina start destroying the companies they supposedly run.
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
If they dump HP/UX in favor of Linux, they had better port their LVM and disk mirroring software to Linux first (which would be a really good thing anyway)!
Moderators: Please make sure you understand a commment before you moderate. The parent posts are saying that Fiorina is not doing a good job at HP. They are expressing in a humorous way what many, many people think.
For the humor challenged: HP should get out of the Fiorina business.
Bush's education improvements were
Corvallis, now this.. hopefully their new push toward linux on their products will survive all this mess.
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess? - Joshua (Wargames)
I've been thinking of putting this in a letter to Carly for some time now. Of course, more people will read it here (a few) than if I send it to her (zero), so here goes:
Ms. Fiorina,
As a Silicon Valley native, I have been very concerned with what has happened to a local institution under your control. Over the past few years, we have seen Hewlett-Packard shrivel from a industry giant in several sectors to a PC and server vendor that is struggling to be considered tier-one.
As such, I offer the following advice:
1. Give calculators to Agilent.
You and Mr. Morris made a lot of enemies by announcing the dissolution of ACO. However, handing the reins to Agilent seems like a simple solution. It seems that the vast majority of HP calculator customers are likely to be Agilent customers anyway. Even though you and Mr. Morris have destroyed ACO, HP calculators have survived gaps in R&D efforts before. Perhaps Mr. Barnholt's team will be able to rehire some of the talent in Australia, and failing that I'm sure that he can recruit some excellent embedded system developers, both from inside and outside of HP and Agilent.
2. Give the Hewlett-Packard name to Agilent.
I'm sure that Mr. Barnholt would be delighted to bring the prestige of the Hewlett-Packard name back to the Test and Measurement business. Furthermore, this move would neatly solve many of your current problems. The copies of The HP Way sent to you by your employees and observers must surely be piling up by now, getting rid of the HP name will likely get the Hewlett and Packard heirs off your back, since their forefathers' legacy would be Mr. Barnholt's to protect.
These two moves would leave you free to pursue your aspirations to build a printer and server powerhouse, and might even keep you in the PC business, despite your recent comments.
You would, however, need a name for this new company. Might I suggest Compaq?
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
Moderators: The parent post is an important comment. Here's a link to the article, instead of just a reference:
Lew Platt began the decline of HP. After several years, he was replaced by Fiorina, who has also not been able to get HP under control.
Hint to the HP board of directors: The new CEO of HP should be someone who has a technical understanding of HP's products. Management experience is not enough.
"Technical understanding" means someone who knows the technology well enough to predict where it will be in several years.
Also, someone who would actually be able to run HP would put a new HP product on his or her desk, before it was released, and try to install it. HP has sold printer products with buggy or insufficiently capable install software recently.
Bush's education improvements were
Speaking for myself only...
Who cares about HP's PC business? What Carly & Co. should be shot for is letting the crown jewels go to hell in a handbasket. I'm talking about the PRINTER business.
HP printers used to have the reputation of being built like tanks, and quite rightly (I personally saw a LJII that fell off a 4 foot table in the Northridge quake. After it was picked up and the toner reseated, it worked just fine.).
Nowadays, they're cheap flimsy plastic crap.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
HPs computer just stink. Have you opened any of those? It's scary! However HP makes the BEST printer, great scanners, ok cd burners, and more. They should stick to what they're good at.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
"HP has been getting by on reputation for 10 years now."
Exactly. I've experienced similar craziness from HP.
Bush's education improvements were
HP needs Compaq to stay in the printer business? Compaq isn't in the printer business. They resell somebody's fax/printer/scanner combo, and they offer one Compaq-branded inkjet printer, which they probably don't make. Mostly they resell HP, Lexmark, and Xerox printers.
Compaq's desktops are FAR better than HP's. Even Compaq sff business line the EVO is superior to anything HP has offered in 2 years. Even HP printers have gone down hill. I recommended Lexmarks here at work because of price, support and print quality. HP's mid range line was nice but it has been a while since I worked on one.
I agree with you on the sales issue though.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
There's some irony in the fact that Carly will be a keynote speaker at the next Linux World expo while she's killing off MPE/ix - HP's OS for the 3000. If there ever was a reluctant poster child for open source, HP is it.
HP has lost interest in MPE/iX and so the existing users have asked that HP release the source to them so that they can continue to support it. HP is hemming and hawing which sounds an awful like "No."
Instead, HP prattles on about "earning your continued trust..." while the larger HP3000 customers wonder how they'll recoup the enormous migration expense that HP has foisted on them.
If HP was serious about wanting to retain their customer's trust, HP would hand over the source and be done with it. It's one thing to say "we can't make money any more on the 3000, here's the source to the software you've been using" and quite another to say "We can't make money any more on the 3000. We're not going to let you have the source because we want you to buy this other solution instead."
Carly's tenure is in jeopardy not so much because of the Compaq merger but because of the enormous damage that's happened to the HP brand during her watch. The failed Price Waterhouse merger, closing the calculator division, throwing away PA-Risc (an amazing CPU!), screwing the HP3000 users, and now the Compaq mess look like more than 3 strikes to me.
PC makers don't get it... there is simply no way to differentiate yourself in this market or under Intel or MS's umbrella...
Sure there is; look at Sony. They came relatively late to the PC game and have done very well. While they have a well deserved rep for proprietary hardware problems, the flip side of this is giving consumers what they want and leveraging their strengths.
In some ways you could compare them to Apple. Firewire, strong video integration for users, high (relative to a beige box) design sense. Re: music, they have taken a different road by tying some of their desktop PC's to MiniDisc, a format you may not see much in the US, but which dominates in Japan, and is I believe more prevalent in Europe.
They're also one of the few manufacturers to try to run with Crusoe; not exactly under Intel's umbrella. As far as M$, well Linux and *BSD are very nice, but not really ready for the homebody users that are Sony's bread and butter. I run Suse on my Vaio notebook and am very happy with it.
There is no way to differentiate a commodity except price, so take your products out of the pure commodity category, and people will buy.
Sig?
Sigue Sigue Sputnik!!!
Quite frankly, I equate HP to the same quality you expect from Packard Bell. I hate those tiny cases!
Zodiac Survey
Why oh why must technology companies be run into the ground like this? Carly is just a bad manager and bad leader but her failures ride on the coat tails of Lew Platt's failures. I don't give a shit that Carly is a woman CEO, for all the hubbub made over that it doesn't really matter in one way or the other. What does matter is how shitty of a CEO she is. She knows her antics would have gotten her tossed out of her position so she made the entire company's upper management sign an agreement never to disagree with anything she proposed. If they didn't want to sign this agreement they were shitca...offered early retirement with a fat check for maintaining their integrity.
Any crap about HP getting out of the PC business is just boardroom antic crap to light a fire under board members. If they don't agree to vote on [proposal] the company will have to drop [product or service]. That is entry level business class crap. The problem is Fiorina sees the Compaq merger as her brainchild and as the future path HP must take. Compaq and HP if merged would form the biggest retail PC maker in the industry. Theoretically they could leverage their systems anywhere. Between them they have inlets to all of the major retail outlets in the country. Theoretically.
The reality of it is the merger would only make one big company to lose money. Maybe she ought to really go through with getting out of the PC business. The market is saturated as it is, people who want PCs have them and aren't going to buy new ones as long as what they have does what they want. People want to get on the internet and type stuff up and play the occasional game. PCs are so fucking overpowered that a two year old PC is still way above what even current software needs to run properly. It would be pretty hard for you to find any consumer program that didn't run just fine on a three year old 500MHz P3 with a TNT2 video card.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.