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PC Makers May Be Left On the Shelves

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the tough-sell dept.

An anonymous reader writes "With the problems posed by a new Microsoft OS, exploding laptop batteries, and changing technology, PC makers may be feeling this pinch this holiday season. Many consumers who are considering purchasing PC hardware are going to be holding off for next year, according to research analysts." From the article: "According to market researcher IDC, PC shipment growth slowed to 7.9 percent in the third quarter, from double-digit percentage growth in the prior three years. The battery recalls may cut into fourth quarter growth, IDC said. Bank of America on October 31 cut its 2006 PC growth forecast to 9.4 percent from 10 percent. All this suggests that consumers looking for bargain gifts may opt for less-expensive gadgets such as cell phones, digital music players, video phones or noise-cancelling headphones."

3 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Absolutely... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Many consumers who are considering purchasing PC hardware are going to be holding off for next year, according to research analysts.

    They're waiting for the new Mac models to be announced at MacWorld before buying a real PC with a real OS. :P

    1. Re:Absolutely... by mark · · Score: 4, Funny

      I agree. Everyone knows a computer should have an 80x24, text-only monochrome display. That's the way the human mind works! These wasteful ideas like high-resolution colour moving images do not support any rational understanding of the human cognitive process. Computers are designed for one purpose, and one purpose only, and only elite programmers who have trained in the methods of the Great Masters from the 1950's should be permitted to use them. Any other use is an abomination.

      I believe that more than 1 megabyte of memory is a waste. Indeed, I used to run a medical laboratory with 100 people in it on less memory than that! We didn't have fancy graphics or those ozone-polluting "laser" printers. We had to send people their test results using coded English on paper that didn't fit into any folder on the planet, and had lines on it. If patients need a graph to explain why they are sick then they simply should have stayed healthy!!

      I believe that languages like Cocoa, Java and C# are abominations. Real programmers don't make mistakes. Real programmers don't write "garbage" that needs collection. If you make a mistake then you are, by definition, not a programmer. And you and the people you work for and all other people who don't even know who you are, should pay the price of your errors, indefinitely (yes, I do believe that Daniel Bernstein is the living Christ). I believe that all programming problems can be solved in assembly language, and that all other languages have no merit, except C, which can be used if you have urgent work to do.

      I believe that we should return to teletypes and 110bps connections and 8 inch floppy disks, because these focussed the mind. I believe that if you can't keep everything that's important to you on a single disk then there is something wrong with you. I want to return the chemistry to photography and the "Super" to video. I want to wait 2 weeks to get my photos back from the drugstore -- only to have the police waiting for me when I pick them up.

      I believe that only consumer computer system on the market which does not get regularly flattened by malware consists mostly of bloatware. I believe the design of the plastic that holds the computer is irrelevant, even if it means no protruding edges to break off and a single object to put on my desk. I believe that a computer that can go to sleep instantly is just lazy. I believe, contrary to all recent reviews, that Macs are more expensive than equivalent PCs. I believe that the actual value of the bloatware installed on a Mac, including all of the free applications, is zero.

      I believe Vista contains no bloatware and that WINFS was, is and will be a great idea. I believe this because I believe in Market Share and the biggest Market Shareholder is Windows. For some reason I like to allude to market share and Linux in the same sentence, even though the two aren't related.

      In short, like you, I am an ignorant, unthinking, luddite troll who makes baseless, disconnected assertions and appears to have lost my humanity. I console myself by knowing that I don't threaten people with violence because of a simple platform preference which is almost certainly based on a more rational analysis than yours.

  2. Good news for me! by Channard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Because as an employee of a major computer chain, who's not on commission, and given that I don't have any plans to stay the industry all that much longer, it's great news. The less busy Boxing Day and Christmas is the better.