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Can Newegg Survive the Post-PC Future?
jfruhlinger writes "Upgrading your desktop PC's video card was once a rite of passage for many Slashdot readers — and could also be a gateway to building your own computer from the motherboard up. And more often than not, you bought the components from Newegg. But the tablets and ultrathin laptops that are today's hot sellers don't let you so much as swap in more RAM. What's a component retailer to do in world without user-serviceable components?"
There will be blood.
Hey NewEgg, if your market is exhausted in US, pls do come to India.
Demand is a LOT more than supply here:)
tablets are a fad
That's probably why they advertise rice cookers in my inbox every morning. agh
There is no other way to play FPS than on pc. So i'm with them till the end
I doubt that those who purchased parts from newegg.com in the past are going to completely shift to ultrathin laptops and tablets. Developers, gamers, hackers who bought parts from newegg in the past are still going to want to make custom systems in the future.
Kids are still interested in this as well. I taught middle schoolers how to build a PC from scratch, and wanted nothing more than to work on their custom machines.
Just because the number of mobiles is rising it does not mean the number o PCs is falling.
2011. The year Gnome decided Linux will never be on the desktop.
I would think that the people who are replacing their desktops with tablets/tiny laptops aren't the ones who were buying parts from Newegg in the first place.
Post-PC? "World with user-serviceable components"? I don't know what world jfruhlinger lives on, but it ain't the same as mine. Desktop PC's will be around for a very long time. It's pretty hard to do any kind of actual work on an i*.
I don't respond to AC's.
Newegg has a high concentration of people who value the PC as a way for owning their data and owning their experience, instead of being a locked down consumer playing in someone else's walled garden.
If post-PC becomes the world norm Newegg's sales will surge catering to all the people who reject the idea of the cloud or the need to jailbreak their own equipment.
I still manage about 500 desktops, and we're constantly ordering parts from NewEgg. While the consumer PC era is being described as ending (not true in my experience), the business workstation is going to be around for a long, long time.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Really, I think it's hype. I cannot ever see a time in the future I would buy a system that I cannot configure and upgrade. As long as there are high-performance games, there will always be a need for new graphics cards. As long as there is a need for speed increases, there will always be some new bus technology. I really am not worried for Newegg.
"They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
they think tablets are the end lol that's funny! hey - you guys are funny! they're funny!!!
Long answer: Yes.
Students in my college were given Thnikpad L420 's.
The HDD,RAM can be upgraded w/o voiding the warranty
I have a R61, on which I have maxed out the RAM, probably will get a SSD when they are cheaper
At home, have a self assembled PC.
Now, as you may see from my UID, I'm not one of the people for whom, "Upgrading your desktop PC's video card was once a rite of passage for many Slashdot readers " is valid.
However, I have seen the older PC's insides, and can say that newer ones are MUCH easier to work with.
Hello, I'd like to introduce you to the False Premise.
Besides, people who are replacing their real computer with whatever the current "hot seller" is are not the primary customer of computer component retailers.
Assuming they don't do anything stupid to themselves, NewEgg is going to be just fine.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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There are still a lot of possible accessories to be sold for those going wholly with tablets - keyboards, stands, other accessory items.
And of course the term "post PC" does not mean the PC is going away, just that it may not be the primary device for everyone with a computer as it has been.
And even with ultra-thin laptops, you have a ton of stuff they can sell - a company right now is working on an external Thunderbolt case for the Macbook Pro line that lets you add new video cards, and of course there's always external storage needed for anything...
I think Newegg will be just fine.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Someone will need to create the apps dontcha know? Or will the next generation of tablets come with code generators?
... You Amazon.com.
I can not count how many times products are cheaper and have free shipping from Amazon as compared to Newegg.
tablets can not fully replace the PC
cause some of us have to create stuff not just watch adorable videos of cats on youtube..... although adorable videos of cats are quite nice indeed.
tables suck ass for content creation
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
What's a component retailer to do in world without user-serviceable components?
Hmm, probably sell components for desktops.
Yeah, just like the suppliers of after-market vehicle parts all went out of business when manufacturers started computerizing cars.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
^^^^^
Ok ok so there was those expansions for the AMIGA, but you have to admit the AMIGA's data buses for everything just sucked.
Get WOW, Everquest, Star Wars (Knights), all those folks ported over to IPads, then maybe (Tens of millions of folks)... Then get those to work well on wireless with less than 2g's of video memory...... MMO's will keep the PC world alive for at least another 3-5 years.
There will always be the traditional tower PC. I for one work from home, and I absolutely despise it when I have to use my laptop or netbook.
My tower is setup for my work, my way. It has a REAL keyboard, and a REAL mouse. As far as I am concerned laptops are for people who just want to use the internet when they are on the go.
No. Newegg doesn't have anything to fear from this Post-PC hype.
The real threat to them are competitors like Amazon that sell the same thing for less, offer free shipping, and have better search features.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Newegg competes with tiger direct and buy.com, not tablets and ultra thin laptops. Newegg SELLSSSSS tablets and ultra thin laptops. Dumb #### . Last I checked they were VERY competitive on their prices in those categories along with everything else. Their business model ties very close to their shipping model, I've been with them since almost the start.
They've been trying to branch out as a pass through seller amazon style into stuff like rice cookers and HD Tvs. No idea how that's been going for them except they can't post a loss on it as they are not selling it under ordinary circumstances. I've bought some of this stuff esp on shell shocker, and though the shipping is a little disappointing, they can't seem to coordinate too well most of the time, it's always been a good deal, something I can't find in stores without a special trip, and good quality.
Also, if you want to build a computer, where else do you go? Micro center prices are complete BS, Wal-Mart? They still think the 9500gt is top of the line. The manufacturer? Somehow newegg beats their prices 99% of the time.
Question the survival of a cornerstone of the internet PC market is just plain out overzealous.
Ex. they survived the palm pad wars just fine and I don't remember those being too customizable, how about apple? not much you can do there without serious hardware knowledge. I think they'll be just fine.
If by Post-PC you mean a scenario where users are no longer constrained to PCs, and can do a lot of their computing tasks on consoles/phones/tablets/laptops... Well, we are there now. But there is still a HUGE market for PCs.
If by Post-PC you mean a scenario where 95+% of PCs have been replaced by such devices? That's not coming any time soon. I think newegg has a long time to go, and a very gradual transition before that occurs.
While smartphones tablets etc... are poking at the PC, it ain't going anywhere for a long time. Want a high end gaming machine, prepare to spend double the money if you want it as a laptop, and then in a year, if you still want it to be high end, you can buy another laptop rather then upgrade the video card. Secondly with windows 8 and OEMs posing the potential of locked bootloaders that prevent other OS's etc... the homebrew desktops demand may rise higher then ever, for anyone who even wants to think about dabbling with macos/linux. Newegg never was targetted at your average computer illiterate person who has no intention to dabble outside of simple things (those people went to best buy). Hardcore gamers, tweakers/hobbiests etc... will make you rip their PCs out of their cold dead hands.
I would say yes. Other gear companies of similar size lack the kind of search options and prices. If pre-builds are the way of the future, you'll still likely need replacement parts if you're a repair shop. Even so, Newegg sells said gear too with lots of search options to get excactly what you want.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
I do not own a tablet or even a laptop but have had my hands on a few. I think they are cool toys and convenient for a lot of things but I refuse to have one as my main computer. I could not write web pages, work in Photoshop or create 3D video. This is my bread and butter and as long as Newegg is selling components, I will be building my computers. Long live Newegg!!!
This is true and is the trend that PC users have followed since the PC's inception. No one who once had the freedom to control their environemnt will want to run head first into a walled garden without a very good reason (no other options, killer app only available there, etc)
The answer to all your problems
Let me introduce myself. I'm a server. I require commodity component parts which many buy from the likes of Newegg. You're an idiot.
Between their "Verified by VISA" and "minimum $60 shipping to HI" policies, I stopped using newegg years ago; it's too bad, as they do have a nice selection...
Most of the people who are only using tablets and ultra-thins are likely not the people who were buying parts from newegg to begin with. The demographic newegg caters to is not going anywhere. If anyone should be scared in this 'post-pc world" (god I hate that buzz-phrase) it is commodity system sellers like Dell.
Can you imagine all business users switching to tablets? Or enthusiasts completely ditching their powerful and configurable systems for tablets? I don't think that is happening. Market for PCs and computer parts of all kinds will be around for a long time. It may shrink some. And it probably will kill smaller component retailers. But the bigger ones like Newegg will get more entrenched.
It seems to me that the only people who think we're anywhere close to a post-PC era is the media. Until tablets and ultrathin laptops are cheaper AND more powerful than desktop components (in other words, never), the PC will NEVER die.
What the Post-PC-era people fail to realize is that the other 99% of the population can't afford to spend $600 on an iPod with an oversized screen, and would rather spend that money on a PC that actually has power.
I'm a PC. I upgrade about 2 parts per year at most. It's dirt cheap. It's more powerful than the brand-new computers you see on a day-to-day basis (at least where it counts, which for me is gaming). I also have a laptop, but that costs so much that it gets replaced on about a 5-year cycle, and it only gets used when I can't access my PC.
Can Dell/Apple survive in a mostly user-serviceable components future? They would probably do much worst that NewEgg in a (very doubtful) post-PC era.
Off the shelf consumer electronics with weak memory & storage offerings and outrageous mark ups to bring it up to useability will never compete with creating your own 16G 12TB 8 core server with a BD burner and 4 screen video wall for 50% (or more) less than retail.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
unless they plan on getting rid of a motherboard there will always be serviceable components. Even a SOC setup still needs a motherboard for other interfaces.
Maybe this article will apply 50 years from now, but certainly not today nor in the near future, nor even with ARM taken into consideration. ARM SOC with the power of a top of the line graphics card? Next year a better version is released? People will buy and drop in the new version.
You can either fight modding, accept modding, or embrace it. Only apple tries to refuse it.
But the tablets and ultrathin laptops that are today's hot sellers don't let you so much as swap in more RAM. What's a component retailer to do in world without user-serviceable components?
Um, pre-built computers from Packard Bell, IBM, Compaq, Gateway, HP, Dell, were the hot sellers prior to and during Newegg's rise. I have a feeling a change in "hot seller" won't change the custom built market one whit.
OK, let's get this started.
What's a component retailer to do in [a] world without user-serviceable components?
In a world without user-serviceable components, a component retailer wouldn't exist. So it's a good thing for component retailers that we do not live in a world without user-serviceable components.
I want to play Rage and Skyrim with the graphic detail maxed out, am I going to buy a tablet for that or am I going to order my shiny new SSDs and video card and mobo and other components from Newegg? The last computer I built was for Crysis when it came out, so it's time for a new one. And I never even got to fill up my terabyte RAID array.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Can itworld.com survive an obvious lack of valid topics to talk about?
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Until computers can do EVERYTHING, there will always be the need for modular construction...
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
If mobile screen tech was better sooner, and batteries had more juice in them 10 years ago, we may never have seen such amazing advances in big desktop computers. Portability is great, but it's nice to see how much power they can pack into a bigger area.
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
Until tablets have 24 inch or larger screens, 5.1 dolby, and support for my older games i'll be purchasing pc's i can build.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I thought iPads still required PCs to activate.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
When my iPad can drive at least three UXGA displays, work with all of my peripherals (mice, 3D mice, keyboards, hard drives, cd/dvd drives, printers, scanners, etc), provide flexible ports for eg DMX lighting control or RS232 projector control or Arduino programming or GPS logging, and transcode h264 video in real time...THEN I might be in the post-PC era.
Until then, I have plenty of uses for a PC. And newegg has a huge market for upgrades and peripherals. And in my experience they are one of the few vendors whose specialization makes them better than Amazon.
Just because the number of mobiles is rising it does not mean the number o PCs is falling.
If by mobiles you include laptop PCs: Not all PCs have user-serviceable parts. Laptop PCs, for instance, are far less user-serviceable than desktop PCs; apart from hard drives and sometimes RAM, laptops from well-known brands really aren't built for internal upgrades.
If by mobiles you exclude laptop PCs: It might come iOS 5, when iPhone and iPad no longer rely exclusively on a Mac or Windows PC to load firmware for the first time.
Some really loud people proclaim a new reality, and for a brief period of time people think a massive shift is happening. Then everybody discovers it's just a handful of people with more ego than brains and they go back to the way things were.
As best as I can tell, this whole post-PC era we're supposedly in is nonsense. Tablets, phones and other cute consumption devices are neat, and I wouldn't mind a tablet myself when they eventually mature, but there's no replacement for my home workstation. I've built my last few desktops myself and my current desktop is hitting around the 3 year mark and I'm starting to look at my upgrade path. I just got a new GPU, the CPU, RAM, mobo and PSU are my next upgrades and will likely occur as one single big hardware swap. An SSD would be nice too!
Back to the topic at hand: I don't see many people I know using their tablets to completely replace their 'real' computers. For some people laptops have started to replace desktops because they have lower demands and realistically laptop hardware seems to be much more on par than it was five years ago. As that continues to improve more people will probably ditch the desktop for a laptop, but that's still a 'PC' and there are still upgrade options like RAM and drives. I still wouldn't ditch a desktop for a laptop but in either scenario Newegg can continue to be successful. They sell laptops, they sell replacement parts.
Even if the Post-PC era weren't just marketing hype and news headline making nonsense, they still have plenty they can offer. NewEgg sells tablets too, they also sell software, home entertainment gear (I just got a new receiver from them) and all sorts of other things. I believe they have the ability to adjust themselves to changes in demand as needed, but I don't really think the PC business is in any danger of crumbling beneath them any time soon. New uses will emerge for computers, new games will come out demanding the latest technology and the best price/performance and the best choice for expansion continues to be the "desktop."
Presently here, but not there.
How did NewEgg make out with regards to selling toner and ink now that we are in a paperless society?
This is why I mostly left the geekverse. Rite of passage? Are you fucking kidding me? Did you cosplay as a Star Wars character while changing the card? What a sea of shit.
Tablets largely complement the traditional PC and laptop. Perhaps they compete against netbooks.
Personally I think the future will more likely offer some sort of convergence between computer and tablet. When on the go and traveling light take the tablet and use it as a touch device. When at the desktop or on the road carrying a full load the tablet is accompanied with a wireless keyboard and mouse and functions more like the CPU and display of a traditional laptop, not a touch device. Alternatively the tablet can be plugged into (wireless ?) an external display and function more like the CPU in a traditional PC setup, again not as a touch device.
Ask a stupid question get a stupid answer:
Will Toyota survive in a post-car world? It seems obvious to me that scooters are going to replace cars. Scooter sales are up over the last 5 years and car sales are down. Therefore no more cars in a few years. How will mechanics survive?
OK- I'll give a slightly less stupid answer too:
Newegg will do just fine- we are a LOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG way from being free of the desktop. Most people have a desktop computer at work (and home).
Most people do NOT have a tablet at work (or at home).
Sure the number of tablets are growing- and I'm sure the tablet will, in some homes replace the desktop in the way the cell phone replaced the home phone in some households. Most households still have a home phone- and it will be decades before the desktop is gone (at least)- plenty of time for new-egg to transition.
I have an old PC and no tablet. My next purchase won't be a new tablet- it will be a new PC. My next purchase after that... perhaps a laptop. I'd LOOOOOOVE to have a tablet- but at this point my priority is getting something I actually need instead of a cool toy. I can get by without a tablet (as can everyone)- taking away my PC would alter my life-quality.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Maybe one day I'll be quoted as being insane but I honestly don't see the world going to exclusively tablets and notebooks. Don't get me wrong, I use my smartphone religiously and bring my laptop with me most everywhere. But if I can view/enjoy/work-on anything with a larger screen and more keyboard space, then I'll do it. If my desktop is available, the mobile stuff falls to the wayside.
What's a component retailer to do
Sell cables and chargers and adapters and "docks" and bluetooth-everything
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
It's pretty hard to do any kind of actual work on an i*.
Device manufacturers don't want you doing actual work. They want established companies doing actual work. Otherwise, companies like Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment would have opened up to home-based microISVs.
Some analysts (citations available upon request) have predicted that after tablets and set-top boxes take over more and more functions from a home PC, the economies of scale of desktop and laptop PCs won't be as effective, and it'll become far more expensive for a home user to buy his first PC. This may eventually lead to a culture where PCs are something that only businesses really buy, much as photocopiers and laser printers were when they first came out.
Rebrand itself as The Shack
Exactly. And in the greater scheme of things tablets are only (so far) a blip on the PC technology radar. Until they've been out for more than a couple years we probably won't know how all users will end up utilizing them...
The answer to all your problems
As others have said, there is no 'post-PC world', and this alarmist black and white thinking is getting a bit irritating.
Yes tablets and ultrathin laptops are gaining popularity. They are popular for uses where user-serviceable desktops were a sub optimal solution to whatever the user was using them for.. so yes, we will see some adjustment in the market as people who were using desktop due to lack of other options move away from them, but there are many domains where desktops are still the right tool for the job and that market will continue to be served. In fact I would wager that said market, after maybe a dip, will go back to growing as the population increases.
This is not to say that newegg is immortal or shouldn't check how it does things now and then.. the industry is littered with companies that could not find a good balance between servicing a niche vs a broader market.
A tablet (iPad style) is *not* a replacement for a PC. For many cases, it serves a niche somewhere between a portable gaming system, a PC (and maybe a book). Yes, you can do things like read email or check facebook, but there are plenty of things you can't do (or not easily, at least). When a tablet can comfortably and conveniently power three displays, type comfortably, play skyrim/Diable3/MW3, manage security systems, render 3d graphics or house designs, download hundreds of gigs of data, serve webpages, play music/video with full HD/surround, re-encode media, edit images, etc etc.. then PC's may be on the out, but more likely they'll evolve.
In the meantime, newegg remains a competitive source for barebones kits, RAM, power supplies, USB gadgets, and much more.
I suppose if zombies take over, they can survive by selling brains.
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
But what about when you can get a 15 inch tablet (which is basically a mb and a screen) for say 50 bucks. Would you *bother* to upgrade it?
That depends on whether I'd need to upgrade it in order to become able to run applications that the device's manufacturer has suppressed. Compare modding original Xbox consoles to run XBMC for Xbox (formerly Xbox Media Center).
PC is not dead, will not die any time soon. Tablets and game consoleswill die before the PC do. I don't know who started the wave, but it's time they return to reality.
When it comes to computer parts, Amazon's website is a freaking disaster zone. NewEgg's search engine has a few quirks, but it's still way better than Amazon's. And I don't find Amazon's pricing to be significantly cheaper, and their free shipping is WAAAYYY slower.
Interestingly enough, the local "CompUSA" store (formerly TigerDirect Outlet) has prices that are usually within a buck or two of NewEgg, and I can have my part NOW. The place is a poorly-organized dump, but as long as they have the part I need, I'm not that picky.
Brand new top of the line tablet? $600 upgrading my pc with the fastest top of the line CPU and maximum ram(im talking like 8 core bulldozer here and 16 gigs of ddr3 1600)? $500 Tablet replacemnt schedule? 1-2 years cpu/ram replacement schedule? 4-5 years Besides, neweg could always just continue sell tablets, and take all those components they have and start making prebuilts if people really ever do get that lazy.
The average slashdot poster will undoubtably argue vehemently against a "post-pc" world, but I think to an extent it is inevitable. It probably won't happen this decade, but maybe in the next. Computer appliances are the way of the future. Average Joe wants an easy to use appliance, not a build-it-yourself nightmare. Even before tablets, the big pc makers were using less and less user maintainable parts. In most modern laptops basically the only thing you can fiddle with is the ram.
The question is: will custom hackable computers ever really go away?
I think the car industry may give a glimmer of hope there. As cars have become more and more difficult to self-service, there is a still a healthy and thriving enthusiast community who hack their cars. I suspect this will also be true for computers. Don't put your solder away yet!
I bought several tablets, and unlike Apples television commercials I wasnt able to learn Mandarin Chinese in minutes, compose a sonata, and my kids didnt suddenly turn into Einstein. So I just use them to check my facebook page, read email and play games like everyone else.
I looked at ultrathin laptops, but spending 2-3x as much on a tiny computer with a tiny screen that I cant upgrade is of no use to me, or most other people who arent college students with rich parents.
So I built my own desktop computer with a huge honking monitor thats fast, expandable and allows for easy content creation and is easy on my 50 year old eyes. It cost me less than a regular laptop to build and I can probably upgrade it and keep using it for 7+ years. Unlike the tablet that isnt really useful for anything except viewing content, and the ultralight laptop that would be outdated and seem slow 2 years from now, or break because they're too fragile.
Surprisingly, I also bought almost everything from Newegg.
I know the hipsters love their gadgets, but nothing beats a PC for horsepower. Much ado about nothing.
This. A thousand times this. PCs aren't going anywhere.
And of course the term "post PC" does not mean the PC is going away, just that it may not be the primary device for everyone with a computer as it has been.
By post-PC, some people refer to post-prosumer. A "prosumer" device such as a PC allows creating works ("pro") in addition to viewing works ("sumer"). A tablet, smartphone, or video game console allows viewing works, but its capacity for creating works is very limited or none.
More of this "Post-PC" idiocy.
PCs aren't going anywhere. First off, thanks to their high price, there is no tablet market. None. Just an iPad market. When tablets come down in price, to around $200 or less, THEN you can expect to see a tablet market. However, I guarantee that almost all tablet owners will also own a PC. Those who don't will tend to be elderly.
two words: component accessories.
There is no other way to play FPS than on pc.
Yes there is: it's called paintball.
Newegg will probably survive a world "without PCs" as well Amazon is surviving in a world "without books". They will sell some different stuff. They'll start with products wanted by the customers who already value their brand and go from there. PS neither books nor PCs will go completely away in the near future.
I remember back several years ago this product called Dragon Naturally Speaking was supposed to be the end-all be all for computing driven by voice command. So were several other products like it, all touting the end of the keyboard as we know it.
And yet, here we are banging away on these plastic keys, which now come in all shapes and sizes(cell phones), all with the exact same purpose they were originally designed for, decades later.
Point is doing start screaming about how tablets and laptops are suddenly going to make every other reason to own or build a true desktop system disappear. Rather pointless argument when you look at computing hardware history.
The thing is, laptops suck, for some of the reasons described (can't be upgraded) and includes difficult to repair, lousy keyboard, tiny screen, lack of I/O ports, wimpy storage, and in many cases lack of guts (CPU, memory, graphic engine) for anything more than web browsing.
I suspect that heavy duty work will still be done on desktops, and they'll still be built in about the same way. Even if future laptops were supercomputing graphic monsters with projection screens, I suspect i'd still need to buy a decent keyboard from someone.
The advantage of the laptop to a power user is that it's portable, and not much else. The advantage to a non-geek is that it's perceived as being low maintenance compared to a desktop. The advantage to some (who must make more than I) is that it's a commodity product that can be discarded when a new version of Windows comes out. (See Windows 8 thread a few days ago.) I personally don't think this is very... green... but I always get modded down when I say that.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
They have been calling the desktop dead for 10 years now each time a new gadget come out. Just got 2 boxes from newegg last week myself. Many people like their desktops, the batteries don't go dead, you always know where they are, the kids don't bring them to their rooms and still juice on it. A $600 desktop will outperform a laptop costing double the price, add a new video card a few years later and your right back up to date. Also, do not rule out the business side of it. Go into most any office and you will see rows of desktops and maybe a few scattered laptops. The IT people need power supplies, replacement drives, fans, keyboards. Tablets are not to useful in most offices, no keyboard, no usb ports, no printers, it all has to be bluetooth or wifi. And dont forget networking is a big seller. Wired, wireless, hubs, switches, modems, firewalls.
Let me see you develop anything on a fucking tablet. Hell, you can barely type on it.
Let's look at my 12-month purchase history with Newegg:
1) HD for my laptop
2) LCD screen
3) laser printer
4) headphones
5) camera
Yeah, I think Newegg is going to be just fine in a "post-PC" world.
Won't someone think of the mail order catalogs!
Desktops aren't dead in the business world, where there are, well, desks. On the other hand, over 80% of computer cases are never opened during their lifetime. What's dead is buying components and plugging them together.
Um, let's see... become more Linux friendly?
Maybe they have gotten better in recent years, but Newegg always struck me as somewhat hostile to Linux users. Now if the nerds are the only ones buying aftermarket parts (which I somehow doubt, but anyway) maybe we'll get better treatment, more attention in tech specs, etc.
They could also focus on the Maker/hacker market. But who are we to deliver a crowdsourced marketing strategy? Know your customers, and your business won't dry up overnight!
s/Newegg/Egghead Software/
Then perhaps they've changed how it works, but last time I checked you needed iTunes. Without it you're stuck on the configuration screen.
The GP was speaking from a beta testing perspective, iOS 5 is not out yet. However it is expected very soon. For now we have this on Apple's webiste:
"With iOS 5, you no longer need a computer to own an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Activate and set up your device wirelessly, right out of the box. Download free iOS software updates directly on your device."
PC gaming is dead, the PC is dead, Newegg is dead, Intel, AMD and Microsoft are dead, we'll all have ARM-based brain implants running Chrome by the end of the year.
There isn't a post-pc future. Stop annoying us with your little gadget thingies that barely run an animation.
Now that even little kids can wear shoes that light up as they walk, will the automobile industry be able to cope with the flashier competition? "I don't like cars. I run!" said Johny Demply, age 6. Shoes are selling at a higher rate than ever before and new "smartshoes" offer portability and ease of use not found in ancient vehicular relics like cars. As the era of the car comes to an end, will automobile manufacturers and dealers be able to adapt to sell accessories for shoes or will they be relegated to the dustbin of shameful obsolescence?
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
It blows my mind that we take troll stories like this seriously enough to put them on the front page here. I just invested $1800 more into this "dying PC retailer," as the article would have me believe, which is more than I've ever spent on consoles, handhelds, and tablets COMBINED. That's additional to my current PC (but a fraction of the total cost), and that's one of 4 PCs I've built ordering from this "dying PC retailer." I know plenty of people who buy lots more than me from Newegg, and with a much more diverse selection, as well.
From what I've seen, it's been people who are enthusiastic about grabbing the latest iGotYourMoneyDevice and the latest smartphones while they're "cool" who are least likely to build PCs themselves anyway, or customize their existing PC, or to invest DIY home media systems and complex networks, etc. Two separate markets, the valid question is: will one dominate the other.
The simple answer is: undoubtedly no. Tablets and other handheld computing devices have a purpose that they serve, just as desktops and more powerful laptops do. These two realms often don't overlap, and it is very unlikely that a handheld device will be computationally equivalent to a desktop (of the same mfg date) in the foreseeable future. Combine that with the fact that PC parts is merely a fraction of what's sold on Newegg (you can buy iPads, phones, TVs, laptops, and a huge selection of other electronics & accessories at retail there, as well as furniture and other niceties, and you see that this article is just plain silly in premise.
Case in point: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858753023
I don't buy this "PC is dead" baloney. Sure, other devices are eating into the PC market share, but frankly, the proprietary-electronics industry will have to pry my standards-compliant case and components from my cold dead hands. I will never buy a tablet, smart-phone, laptop or any other proprietary device to outright replace my PC until a market opens up allowing me to upgrade and build my own from scratch.
And even then, there isn't a mobile device on the planet that can compete in productivity with my triple-screen SLI setup. I don't need lighter-weight, I need more screen real estate. Additionally, until I can rely on my expensive mobile devices like my iPhone 3g not running like its got 2KB of RAM and a 5MHz processor only 2 years after purchase, the mobile market certainly won't be winning any replacement points here.
So the market is more crowded; big deal. Just like Dell, Tiny, HP, etc. discovered 15 years ago – people want choice, and especially so now that they're used to it. DIY computing has never been for the non-techie anyway. Until the proprietary-electronics industry offers a standard to which I can build my devices from scratch, my hard-earned computing cash will always go to the company/industry offering freedom and choice. Those who don't will always find themselves running in the back of the pack in my household and business (hear that Sony? You're not welcome in my house, and that goes for any company out there who wants to sell me a leash!)
OS manufacturers seem to get it, even if their marketing is pushing this Post-PC nonsense. People want BOTH, not a replacement (see Windows 8). I'll say it again: there is no such thing as a Post-PC world coming in the foreseeable future. As long as the industry keeps trying to force people into a proprietary box they can happily bend over and take my old PC parts up their asses.
Did I not get the memo? Are they vaporizing due to the magnetic storm or something? We still have a ton of desktop boxes around here (about 1,500 total) which I don't think will be going anywhere soon. Also several servers on-site which are *not* laptops (or macbooks for that matter). I think newegg is safe. Save the panic for the solar flare activity.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Radio Shack managed to build itself a future even as DIY electronics waned. Their component aisles generally shrank to make room for new products as they adapted, but they adapted. NewEgg can too.
People said with laptops that no one would ever use a desktop again.
People said with netbooks that no one would ever use a desktop again.
People said with smartphones that no one would ever use a desktop again.
Now with tablets people are saying that no one will ever use a desktop again.
Most of these devices supplement PCs, not replace PCs.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Judging by my order last week, and what's in my wish list now, I think they'll be okay for quite a while!
Most folks that build their own machines or upgrade them are gamers and enthusiasts that need PCs. You can't replace a PC with a tablet for gaming or development for example. There are those that just want to play with the insides and change them around. I don't consider myself a true modder yet I have toyed around with upgrading my video card a couple of times, adding hard disks and adding an extra fan that I'm not too sure helps or not.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
From what I've read for other articles from many other sources, the general consensus isn't that desktop sales are declining, they're just not growing like they use to. Most people only need 1-2 desktops for the whole family. Tablets/Netbooks/Smart-phones on the other hand, you can have quite a few per family. Lots of growth potential.
Oh, right. The post-pc era. I didn't realize. Someone should let the AAA game developers know. And NVidia and AMD, while they're at it.
Oh, also, Intel should probably stop developing new desktop chips and chipsets. We probably shouldn't be investing much in LCD monitors either.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Sell abroad. The world is big, open one office in each country and expect big bucks. We in Brazil pay 3 to 4 times as much for a new car than Mexicans or Americans; I don't believe computer components will gross as much, but you may bet your ass that 1.5 to 2 times, we'll be lusting to pay for.
Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog
Maybe, just in case the bottom really falls out of the desktop PC market, Newegg should branch out and start selling laptopns, netbooks, tablets, phones and other stuff.
Meanwhile, I have to go see if UPS dropped off my Newegg shipment yet ...
Oh, and you're welcome for me saving Newegg with my great idea. I'm surprised they didn't think of it themselves.
Newegg's email flyers are full of stuff like network hubs and micro-ATX motherboards for HTPC machines as well as regular PC components and laptops too.
I think that Newegg will see some loss of business from people using tablets and phones for things they used to use desktop pc's for, but they sell tablets and some phones as well. The desktop PC isn't going anywhere, the companies that supply them are consolidating, there is a big difference. As price drops, margins drop and the only way to be competitive is to become more cost efficient, something Dell has been doing for decades. So there will be less PC manufacturers, there won't be less PC's. Newegg has to be careful, but for the foreseeable future they are in good shape. I will build and upgrade my own pc's as long as they are evolving.
There's a lot of things people have to understand before assuming the inevitable world of ultra portable computing comes in to take over the computing world. Everything is not as it seems, and companies don't want you to see it any other way.
When was the last time you saw someone with a tablet? When was the last time you saw someone with a tablet that wasn't from Apple? The iPad maybe selling well, but not other tablets. HP gave up cause their tablets weren't selling, and BestBuy wanted HP to take them back. In fact, from what I understand is that only Apple has had successful sales of tablets. Everyone else is still trying to wonder why their tablets aren't flying off the self. This means that only Apples tablets are selling, and probably due to it just being an Apple product.
The ultra portable laptops are a result of people not needing the processing power of modern PCs, but why is that? About 10 years ago we really didn't need anything more then 1Ghz for web surfing, email, and word processing. Today, that hasn't changed. What did change is the gaming industry. When the Xbox 360 and PS3 took PC gaming away, so did the need for fast hardware. Most people game on their tablets, as most people did on their PCs. The difference is that no PC game today needs the latest and greatest hardware. If anything, you could use a PC from 4 years ago and still play games just fine.
If you build it, they will come. Make applications that need processing power, and you'll see people coming back to desktop PCs. I'd also have to wonder why we aren't building our own laptops? Their modular just like desktop PCs, but nobody has made a standard to build a laptop around. You know, like ATX for motherboards and cases in desktops.
Assuming they don't do anything stupid to themselves, NewEgg is going to be just fine.
Newegg announced today they will split into two businesses. One business will allow you to have 3 pieces of hardware out at a time, and the other business will allow you to stream as much hardware video as you want. Oh, dang, wrong company.... (back to making widgets....)
Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
I imagine they'll just do the same thing that mwave did, and branch out into watches, jewelry, and pet supplies...
I think a better question would be can custom computers be built when motherboards switch from BIOS to UEFI a la Windows 8
... so what do you expect?
Newegg is just a place to buy stuff. They aren't in the business of manufacturing PC components. If the markets shift to tablets and portables from traditional desktop PCs, Newegg will just carry more of those for sale. I like Newegg and build my own rigs, but we need to get over this weird brand loyalism that is causing battle lines to be drawn up all over the tech world. It's just a store, no need to cry if they can't keep up with trends.
I doubt that those who purchased parts from newegg.com in the past are going to completely shift to ultrathin laptops and tablets. Developers, gamers, hackers who bought parts from newegg in the past are still going to want to make custom systems in the future.
This. Newegg's core customer group has always been people who will keep building and maintaining systems with "user serviceable parts." Gamers, hackers, home theater freaks, IT pros, and people who are just plain picky about their technology. They aren't going away, and they aren't going to quit buying what they buy anytime soon.
The people to whom this shift really applies typically would view a simple RAM upgrade as tantamount to brain surgery. No loss there.
Pretty much everyone has at least one laptop, and those can take RAM, hard drives, CPUs if you're proficient, and assorted peripherals. Only Apple is a closed-shop on that end. Yes, I have a Kindle and an iPod Touch, and I can't upgrade or repair those, but that doesn't mean I'll stop working with what I've had forever and require for my everyday life, the PC. I don't see why anyone else would just stop either, PCs are not disappearing as the must-have tool for getting work done in nearly all occupations.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
"Yeah, we still sell some audio cards."
Money I spent on Newegg purchases in the last 10 years or so: ~$3000
Money I spent on Apple stuff in my entire life: $0
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
With desktop PCs people got a sense of freedom (i.e. running whatever you want), and they won't give it up easily.
People already showed willingness to give up freedom in the transition from 1980s 8-bit home computers, which were used in part for playing video games on TVs, to locked-down video game consoles. And with computer viruses and fake antivirus software becoming more severe over the years, a locked-down, signed, curated execution environment starts to look better to some people.
Everything has serviceable components.
Newegg sells more than just computer parts. Also "gaming" is much more than angry birds.
-- if you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
If it's not upgradeable, it’s replaceable. If it’s replaceable you will need a store to buy something from. As long as Newegg sells whatever the current tech is (and doesn’t do anything stupid to otherwise lose customers), then yes it can survive.
There are two types of "computer users"
1) People who hit the power button one a day, check email, brows a few web sites, play a few games, and shut the thing off.
2) People who set the PC up, turn it on and, because of constant use, upgrades, tinkering, programming, etc never turn it off again.
For group 1 the PC is just a toaster with email, cat videos, and games. For group 2 the PC is a gateway to a better world.
Does this mean the hundreds of desktops in my school's computer lab will be replaced with iPads? Or maybe it means the computer labs will cease to exist because they are unnecessary? The line outside the lab today says otherwise.
I've bought two things from NewEgg in 6 years: a playstation controller and a memory upgrade for my mac.
Immediately after the mac memory upgrade, my card number was used to buy $300 more stuff on NewEgg.
Never again.
Create their own tablet to compete with the iPad? Everyone is doing it these days.
NewEgg should diversify, start selling radios like Universal Radio, maybe kits too like EleCraft, TenTec, MFJ, (and Heathkit?)
there is more to electronics than PCs and laptops and associated perifrials...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
The big new market is the HTPC. No PC maker out there is hitting this market currently. I think newegg needs to cater to this market more. Yes they have HTPC shells but the selection is no better than anywhere else. yet, the public is obsessed with DVR and streaming. The do it yourself market is here now. Most of us gamers who used to build our own PCs have fallen in love with the gaming laptop. We are more than happy to give up Frames per second in order to game anywhere we want.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Regardless of the whole "PC is dead" argument, I've found Newegg's website the best and most helpful compared to any online retailer. Combined with their outstanding service and good prices, I think Newegg would be doing well even if they just sold dairy products.
Specifically, what I like about Newegg:
1) Comprehensive product pictures - they make their own, reasonably high-resolution, from various angles, rather than just using the manufacturer supplied one.
2) Detailed specifications - especially for computer products (somewhat lacking still for other items). It's often easiest to find specs directly from from Newegg.
3) User reviews - these are very useful once there's a critical mass of them for a given product. They tend to reveal major issues right away.
4) Links to manufacter's pages - useful in the rare event that Newegg's info is not enough.
What will be the impact on society when the common kid or inquisitive adult no longer have access to a computer they can program? I can see this going a few different ways, but all of them curve downwards...
You'll let me know? Thanks.
Its still a Long way away before desktops are made obsolete as a method of computing. personally, I do not prefer to use a laptop other than web surfing and light applications. for anything needing advanced computing I use a desktop that I can easily upgrade and change as I see fit. When desktop needs an upgrade, You only need to upgrade that one component that needs it (within limits). You do not have that freedom with laptops and other mobile devices. Desktop computing will still be here for a LONG time. and even then, when its not, Newegg will still be my preferred place to shop for anything computer or electronic/entertainment.
We're only seeing the "no user serviceable parts in side" phenomena because the manurfacturers so far are the kind that love to do that, Apple, Motorola, Samsung, et al.
/. crowd.
If you are introduce a shiny new product category that rabid fans will buy no matter how crippled it is, you somewhat get to dictate your terms to the market. Ie no administrator access and ToS that locks you out of dicking about with the hardware.
We'll see more serviceable tablets in the future, purely because there is some demand for it, that isn't currently being met at all.
Also after a while, people will have two or three generations tablets kicking about at home and suddenly realise what planned obsolesence means, that they have been buying a new on of these every 8-12 months, and adding to a growing pile of e-waste.
There's a limited but viable market there for repurposing, upgrading and revitalising old computing devices of any kind.
Honestly a lot of us are holding back from buying tablet computers because of the inability to do something as simple as plug in a usb stick or some other peripheral. There's a whole world of existing computing peripherals that are walled off to these idle content consumption devices.
Now if someone came out with a modular reconfigurable tablet form factor you'd bet it'd be popular with the
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
ARM SOC with the power of a top of the line graphics card? Next year a better version is released? People will buy and drop in the new version.
SOC Mfr: "Good afternoon, Acme Semiconductor Systems, this is Malik, How may I assist you today?"
Nerd: "Yes, I'd like to order an ASS-102 sixteen-core SOC, please."
SOC Mfr: "Okay sir, I can certainly assist you with that. May I have your ASS customer number, please?"
Nerd: "Uh, I don't have a customer number yet."
SOC Mfr: "Okay sir, I would be happy to assist you with setting up a new account. What is the name and Dun & Bradstreet number of your company, sir?"
Nerd: "Uh, I don't have a company, it's just me. I just need an ASS-102 to upgrade the ASS-101 in my (expletive) phone."
SOC Mfr: "Sir, we require the Dun & Bradstreet number of your company, and a minimum order of 1,000 units, before we can create an account for you sir."
Nerd: "(Expletive). I only want one (expletive)ing ASS-102 chip. I got this (expletive)-y phone for $100 with a contract!"
SOC Mfr: "Well, sir, we could provide you with an engineering sample for you to work with as you design your new phone, sir. We would require you to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and you would need to put down a deposit of $10,000, which would be credited to your first order."
Nerd: "(Expletive) you."
Just my own personal anecdote to add:
I went through an Apple phase for about 3 years.
That phase just ended and I built a PC from parts I ordered from NewEgg.
It has never been better to be a PC enthusiast right now (especially with SSD technology)
Companies like NewEgg could survive if mobile manufacturers would start developing modular parts. The problem with that is that the entire mobile industry is following Apples lead. Apple basically says that we don't want you to change our devices hardware (or software) because your messing around may cause you a bad use experience which you may blame on us which neither of us want because Apple is perfect and never does anything wrong. Because Apple has this philosophy then pretty much all mobile device makers do. If these manufacturers would start creating modular devices then consumers could essentially upgrade the processor, increase memory, change the graphics, etc. There are problems with modular designs because generally speaking you can create smaller devices if everything is on a single circuit board where as modular systems have to many separate chips that lock into the mother board. In addition, they have to make methods of accessing the parts for humans big clunky hands which have difficulties working with delicate parts like would be found in a mobile device. There are some companies that have tried and are planning on trying modular parts for phones. Microsoft for example just submitted a patent for a mobile device that provides a mechanism to attach a myriad of other devices including an additional screen, keyboard, HDMI, network card, etc. It appears to work similar to the PC Card that you find in laptops so anything that you could normally with a PCI slot in a computer there may possibly be similar counterparts for a phone like this. The thing I would really like to see from a mobile device like this is an attachable touchscreen E-Ink display because there are times when no matter how bright you put your phone you still can not see anything.
I've gone from having a Linux box made from parts ordered from newegg.com to having a room full of junk like a tablet, netbook, etc to test the user interfaces I develop on the computer.
People still use Newegg? I mean the tech elite - I'd assume the masses are slobbering all over the pathetic prices and haphazard inventory. Seriously, my local mom-n-pop was matching or beating Newegg on price as of five years ago. And said mom-n-pop is expanding - that is, opening new stores.
But more on topic - the PC isn't going away. Everyone and their mother still has a PC. Everyone and their mother will still have a PC. That everyone and their mother are slowly ramping up to buy iPads and loltablets to go with their PCs doesn't change that fact.
Even if something magical happens - if heavy lifting like dicking about with spreadsheets and documents and photo/movie editing - becomes usable on tablets, there's still gaming. And hardcore crazy motherfuckers who don't own a car but slam down their meagre paychecks to get an overclocked, watercooled, LED-lit monstrosity with four video cards - are what drives this business - be it Newegg or mom-n-pop.
Point 1 - The premise that we are entering a "Post-PC" era requires some evidence to back the theory. TFA didn't provide anything, other than a reference to Newegg pulling out of their IPO in May 2011. And even with that statement, Kevin Purdy says, "What happened? The internal factors are unknown." That does not provide sufficient data to support his premise. Shame on you, Kevin Purdy, for your sensationalism.
Point 2 - Newegg.com sells a great deal more than just PC parts. Even if Kevin Purdy's apocalypse were to occur, Newegg has a great deal of other business to support their profits margins. Last time I checked, you can buy phones, tablets and ultrathin laptops from Newegg.com.
Point 3 - There is sufficient evidence that we are, in fact, in the midst of a PC expansion. Nvidia just made the claim that PC sales will overtake consoles by 2014, Microsoft believes in the prominence of the PC, Michael Dell comments on his predictions, Epic thinks the PC has been 2nd fiddle to the console for too long, and MaximumPC has an article showing the results of a Baird survey relevant to the issue.
Will some people buy phones, tablets and laptops (ultrathin or otherwise) instead of a PC? They have been for years, why would that change now?
Will the PC market dry up and force PC Enthusiasts into a world of non-replaceable component devices, where we will be forced to feed on the scraps of outdated machines? Doubtful. I point to the Audiophile market as a comparative case study, where you can spend an incredible amount of money on components that some might argue have been replaced by smaller and better integrated devices. I suspect the home built PC market will survive phones, tablets and ultrathin laptops, just as it survived Dell, Gateway, Micron, Acer, et al.
sig sig sputnik?
That's exactly WHY I will never support ultrathins and tablets.
No upgrades on a $1000+ computer that is obsolete within a year?
AWESOME! I'LL TAKE IT!
Uh, just how are people supposed to write term papers, fill in spreadsheets for their boss or work on their resumes on a tiny screen with no keyboard? OK, sure there are some mobile phones and some tablets where you can add a keyboard (or a dock of some kind), either out now or coming down the pike, but do you really want to do the big projects without that nice 20 or so inch widescreen monitor, keyboard and mouse? I sure don't.
What about gamers? I just bought a PC with a nice graphics card in it so I could play the high end games.
What about large computation and memory-hungry programs, like photo and video processing? No, I'm not talking about a business, I'm talking about your average digital camera owner that likes to touch up their photos and videos before presenting them to their family and friends. I do. I sure as hell wouldn't want to do that on any computer with less than 2 cores and 4GB of ram (I currently have 8 cores and 8GB of ram).
What about servers? Businesses do not operate their web sites, e-mail and other services on fracking tablets and cell phones!
Who the hell are these people predicting the end of the PC?! They're absolute morons!
And they still refuse orders placed by international customers...
Newegg is quite diversified. Their main competition is stores like Frys and Micro Center that will match internet pricing however,
the hassle of driving to a local store and trying to negotiate the price with the personnel on hand isn't worth the trouble in most
cases. Free shipping and no tax helps even things out and the convenience of not spending expensive gas is also a plus.
I too don't think pc's are dead. Microsoft and Apple may help the lnux desktop considerably from what I have seen of
Windows 8, etc.
I recently gave up cable tv and started looking for VGA->component connections, and the first place I thought of was Newegg, despite the fact that I am not using a PC. Fortunately for them (and users), they are fairly unlimited in what they offer, at a relatively low price, and with an observed high-level customer service. Overall, not a bad business model, and one other companies could try to emulate.
I wonder whatever happened to them?
You can buy laptops and tablets and internet connected TV's from Newegg as well, along with all of the cables and add-ons. They'll do fine.
I'd be more concerned about video game stores... there isn't much of a point in buying games in a box when you can download them from your broadband connection for $10 cheaper.
September 16th, 1995 - Death of the Personal Computer?
After more than 15 years of predicting the death of the PC and being wrong, I see we've moved on to predicting the death of PC related retailers. I greet this new line of reasoning with similar skepticism.
My spending on Newegg (or equivalent online electronics retailers) has remained pretty constant over the past several years. I can't spend more than y% of my income there because otherwise I'd go broke, and I'm probably not going to spend less than x% because, well, I like shiny new things. All that's changed is what I buy. Once I got out of the painful cycle of 18-24 month PC upgrades, I could finally afford things I always meant to do but never had the spare cash. I switched to a larger, more extravagant monitor, then I bought a second one. I added an internal RAID for storage, then I added a NAS backup. I built that home theater PC I had always wanted, and got a bigger TV to pair it with. Suddenly I needed speakers and a receiver. I bought legitimate versions of software I had not been able to afford before. I added a dock for my phone, a better keyboard and mouse combo, and a hefty battery backup. I bought a scanner and a color laser printer. I upgraded our router. I got another laptop and gave my old one to my wife.
It certainly also helps that 1) components are getting cheaper and 2) my interest in video gaining is waning and mostly restricted to games from "the good old days," with the occasional indy game thrown in for good measure. The Diablos, Quakes, WarCrafts, SimCitys, and Half-Lifes all still run great for me, thanks, as do new favorites like Zombie Driver, Galcon Fusion, Torchlight, and Audiosurf.
If Newegg's shipping department can't learn that shipping hard drives and other components in bubble mailers is a bad idea, then no, they likely won't survive. After receiving 3 hard drives in a two week period earlier this year from Newegg shipped in bubble mailers, I've shifted what were previously regular Newegg purchases to TigerDirect and Amazon. Newegg has a long history of recurring problems with improper or inadequate packaging and it makes me wonder just how many of the negative reviews of "This drive/[insert part here] died after two days" were cases where parts had been improperly packaged for shipping.
'Will monoprice survive in a wireless world?'
Is this like the death of the mainframe stuff? Year of LINUX? Delivery of Duke Nukem For ..oh, wait...
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
What's a component retailer to do in world without user-serviceable components?"
It used to be that you would buy transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc and wire up your own circuits. But then came ICs.
It used to be that you would buy amps, and turntables, and tuners, etc and build your own stereo deck. But then came Walkmans and MP3 players.
It used to be that you would buy motherboards, and RAM modules, and hard drives, and peripheral cards, etc. But then came laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
It's the same race, just with different competitors.
Oh, you'll still have your pc builders, and your component audio freaks, and your nerds with soldering irons... but it just isn't the same.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
"Upgrading your desktop PC's video card was once a rite of passage for many Slashdot readers[...]
was once? ahem.... still is?
To
I upgrade my ebook readers, my MP3 players, and my tablet computers.
Surely you can solder a few wires to a USB drive...right?
Surley you have replaced your tablet's Mini-PCI-Express 802.11B wi-fi card with one that supports 802.11G&B, as well as Bluetooth...right?
And you have surely patched a noise cancelling bluetooth headset into your 2 meter ham radio so you can talk at 90MPH with the windows down...right?
Everyone's upgraded an IPOD's flash disk and battery...right?
If not, go away.
So long as people are gaming on PC's, there will be a need for PC parts stores. That need may diminish to an extent given the power of new laptops and we've already seen Newegg respond by expanding into other areas.
I have a personal rule, I buy a PC every 3x power improvement, with an occasional graphics update in between.
I'd love to improve my PC which has a E8600 (big brother of the very popular E8500, one of the fastest dual core processors), a AMD 4850 (512 MB ram, the biggest thing would be an improvement in bus bandwidth which has always distinguished high end hardware from mid range hardware, also while several cards have 4GB of memory it's generally quite slow) also my system can handle just about any game out there one pretty high settings. Got 2 gigs of low CAS memory, don't really feel like replacing it with higher bandwidth lower transition memory.
For HDs I have a 1TB Raid-0 and a 120 GB Raid-1 for secure storage. It might sound paranoid but I don't want SSD, I want my computer to be COMPLETELY idle when I'm not touching it. If the HD is making noise I know I have malware or a virus, or some other unwanted software... as systems get faster and faster it's going to get harder and harder to tell if something unwanted is in your system.
I have 2 1TB HD's sitting around ($30 each, craigslist) which are going to be my new HD or Storage, since I don't need the space I haven't bothered to install them).
Anyway there's just nothing out there that makes me need to upgrade my system in the next little while. I think this is a general problem encountered by many computing enthusiasts at this point.
Here's the story I was thinking of:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4569/village-instruments-ceo-promises-graphics-card-enclosure-for-thunderbolt
Basically it's feasible because on the Mac at least Thunderbolt gives you direct access to the bus, not sure if all PC implementations will do that yet.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A "prosumer" device such as a PC allows creating works ("pro") in addition to viewing works ("sumer"). A tablet, smartphone, or video game console allows viewing works, but its capacity for creating works is very limited or none.
That's an incredibly shortsighted view of tablets.
In fact it's so shortsighted, all it can do is look behind, before the iPad.
With the iPad you have a "pro" content creation ability in addition to the consuming side. You can use the screen as a velocity sensitive keyboard. You can use it for art. You can use it for music composition and video editing. With a keyboard attached you could easily write a book with it.
And that's just what we have today. Imagine what we will have in five years. To think tablets cannot be productive devices is to ignore all of history and every spec of science fiction ever written. It is to deny the very nature of humanity which is to create.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nothing is going to replace my desktop computer. I use it for what it was made for, computing. I like having a keyboard and a big screen and a machine that can recode videos while I'm away. Anyway, with the end of Moore's Law upgrading for performance is reaching its limits. Good thing too. I hate to see people throwing their functional but unupgradeable iCrap devices away because something newer has hit the shelves. Disposable devices are so 1980s.
Implying I can game on a thin client.
Do you know what role tablet PCs will have in the hardware lives of Slashdot users 10 years from now? They'll be our laptop's second monitor, and desktop computer's auxiliary input device (now EVERYONE can have a Wacom-like tablet!). Normal users will use a tablet as their mouse. Slashdot users will buy a $150 OLED mousepad with overlay that looks transparent, but the mouse sensor will see as a complex pattern to assist with motion detection (and of course, something like a Hall-Effect sensor to disable any touch capabilities it might have when the mouse itself is on top).
Slashdot users will still have real mice, though, because even the best capacitive screen sucks donkey balls next to a thousand+ hertz sample rate high-res gaming mouse. Once you've gotten spoiled by a mouse like the Logitech G700, you can't go back and join the rest of the grunt world. Wireless gaming mice have firmly taken their place next to the Model M as "must have" peripherals :-)
Since I was a kid I dreamed of a multi-monitor setup. I'm now 26 and have a three screen setup I use everyday for work that I built myself with parts from newegg. I am also a gamer and can't imagine using anything but a keyboard and mouse. When this computer becomes defunct, I will build a new one out of parts from newegg. There is a passion and pride in building your own PC that cannot be captured from store-bought devices.
The official year of NOTHING on the desktop?
(not that I believe that for a minute, but couldn't go without making that silly joke)
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Oh, god why!??! Newegg was so amazing and everything that can be done on a PC has been completely replaced on a tablet. We're in the future where we have computers hardwired into our brains and we're all part of a skynet like structure that does all the processing for us! There is no other reason to have that clunky heap of metal on our desks.
I'm so worried. Newegg and all the other hardware retailers online will have to resort to prostituting themselves on the corner with smartphones and monster cables, just like Radioshack!
Seriously, some fucking people. One complete tard in the industry says computers are dead and everyone hops on the hype bandwagon and runs around like ninnies. There are so many reasons why Newegg, nor the PC, will not disappear I don't know where to start. All of it I'm sure has been talked about ad-nausem right here.
The tablet and netbook thing is a FAD. They can only do a fraction of what computers can do and have no real role. Smartphones, tablets, and desktops will remain a cornerstone of the electronic era for years to come. Each one has their own merits and each one has their own reason for existing, everything else in between has no real point except for bling and to show your friends how awesome you are too.
How long have wannabe technologists been preditcing the end of the desktop PC? For almost 20 years now when I think back. They are always wrong. NewEgg will continue to sell component hardware to enthusiasts for the foreseeable future, unless they have issues with their actual business.
Desktops are not selling like they used to, that's for sure. They will eventually become a targeted solution for high-end professional computing needs, enthusiasts, quasi-appliances, demanding workplaces, etc... In my corporation, each employee is provided a laptop. But half the company also have one or more desktops provided to us as well. A smaller portion has multiple desktops. We are just one company with 17 thousand employees.
How about soldering in a new battery the motherboard?
The ps1, ps2 / xbox, ps3 / xbox2 were all lauded as the death of pc gaming. With gaming enthusiasts being the majority of the DYI market, newegg should have been gone a long time ago. It seems the pc is destined to die and be resurrected more times than a congressional pork barrel spending bill.
Waiting for those bloody SSDs to drop to a saner price.
I have 4 HDs I'll replace with 1.5TB SSDs when the price drops a fair amount. And does AMD / ATI still make video cards? I can't tell these days.
As for the motherboard and CPU, that'll get replaced when AMD starts selling a PhenomX12 or something in the 4 Ghz range. The memory will be upgraded to motherboard maximum if / when that happens.
Blue-Ray drives when the price for those drops; same for the media. It's an adoption issue. Most people just barely have a DVD-burner, not something that reads Blue-Ray (unless it's a PS3)...
The mouse and keyboard will be replaced when I can find something that works as well as my old MS Bluetooth Elite Keyboard and Mouse. The signal on my Logitech stuff needs to receiver like a foot away from the mouse / keyboard to work. I liked the MS Elite, which could transmit from the other side of the room with no problems.
The case will stay until I can decide just what kind of liquid cooling system I might want, and whether it will fit.
I still care about sound cards, just need to find one that gives me less trouble than Creative.
Monitors I am already working on.
And the OS will be upgraded to MS Windows 8 or some version of Linux, depending on just how badly designed Windows 8 is. I'll be watching that one.
And I have a new pair of headphones (Steel series); thank you Tritton for closing my trouble / warranty ticket and not getting back to me when your (my old) headphones cracked.
I am John Hurt.
My solution to the companies who are driving this trend with special chips to keep you from swapping in a better drive - like replacing the HDD with an SSD - is simple. I won' t buy their product. Newegg is doing fine, and will do better in the future with their excellent customer-service, and wide-selection of goods.
Let me know when Xcode runs on iPad.
I estimate that in roughly two years I will be able to.
Today of course I can compile code on the iPad if I wish...
See? Totally shortsighted. Is it so hard to extrapolate from what we have now to that? Can you really not see that coming?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I bought my last notebook from newegg. An asus g- something or other. I'll probably buy another one in 1.5 years.
I own a small IT shop in which we do everything from PC repair, custom builds, networking, even on-site PC and server support for a few of our business customers. By far the most common day to day jobs are PC repairs though, and although I've seen a definite surge in how many laptops are brought in (as in the number of folk who use a notebook/netbook for their portable and/or primary usage), surprisingly I've seen very little drop in the amount of replacement parts I've ordered this past couple of years compared to four or five years back. Even that small bit could just as easily be attributed to the dip in the economy as most folk don't have as much money to throw at upgrades when their existing system does just fine and living expenses continue to climb. Notebook/netbooks I believe are definitely becoming more common as they've become cheaper and can definitely be more convenient at times. I myself have a laptop, but when it comes to my preferred system to work or play on when I'm at the shop or at home, I definitely sit down at my custom desktop rig when I don't need the portability of my laptop. Even with their rise in numbers, I seriously doubt NewEgg will have any shortage of component orders anytime soon... other than economy related. In a few more years though, who knows. Anyone in IT can tell you things change fast!
The whole point of an ultra thin tablet is to be able to leave any optional parts you would buy from newegg at home or in the bag. Eventually people will have a powerful desktop at home and calling a docking station because all the files and even running processes, open network connections and streaming videos from the tablet will be instantly migrated. Just treat the tablet as a second monitor for user's custom PC and you will be fine. If you can not adopt your business to modern connectivity standards, oh well...
I'd say they will be fine. Consumers are buying the latest idevices because they are cool at the moment. When they realize that most of these devices are non-upgradeable, I predict some will jump ship to more upgradeable and expandable devices. Apple is one of the worst in this area by not including expandable storage capability in their idevices (they want to sell you cloud services) and blocking RAM upgrades on the Macbook Airs (modules are soldered to the mainboard).
I have a couple "vintage" boxes running at home for various purposes which need replacement parts from time-to-time. Although I still have components far older than 15 years, my oldest still-in-use machine dates back to about 1999 and even it gets new parts occasionally. Luckily I have a very tolerant wife and storage space, so I rarely throw out working components, regardless of age. From time to time the old parts come in handy for my own boxes and also friend's boxes, but sometimes new parts are required.
There are still a lot of people... a LOT of people playing high end games. You can't do that on a mobile or ultrathin. The demise of high end computing will be a long time coming my friend. Just because it's shiny and says "Apple" on the outside doesn't mean we are fooled into parting with thosands more than the underlying performance is actually worth.
Today of course I can compile code on the iPad if I wish
With or without jailbreaking? Once iOS 5 comes out, the iPad will be able to update its own operating system without being connected to a Mac or a PC running Windows. So don't necessarily count on a jailbreak sticking on your device for long.
I'm a little shaky about this Post-PC future. I have a kid who works for me on my farm. He has just bought himself a new PC. He's a gamer, and wanted something with more zip. Comes with a random generic vid card, which he will swap with the better vid card he's got already in his old PC.
I've looked at netbooks, and have considered an iPad, Macbook Air, but at the end of the day, my work pattern is to have 9 octillion windows open at a time.
As to doing your work in the cloud, forget it. Even doing work over a LAN using RDP or remote X-windows is like sucking golf balls through a garden hose as soon as you get to something with significant graphics.
My internet speed at it's best is 1/50 my local network speed; and is 1/3000 my peak local disk speed ( 2Mbit/s vs 100 Mbit/s vs 6 Gbit/s
I don't think the PC is any where close to being 'Post'
They won't be as common. I imagine that the future heavy computer user will have both a desktop and a portable machine; a few people, like my father-in-law will use only an iPad, And there will be another bunch who use a computer at work, and have little interest in doing anything else.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
That pretty much sums up what I think of jfruhlinger's post.
First and very foremost: It is not Post-PC yet. Businesses, schools, etc. aren't replacing their Desktops for Ipads and what not.
Second: Ipads and ultra-thin laptops are not at the same computing power that PCs and IMacs. Most people would want a Core i3 or 6-core AMD Phenom 2 beast to play games or develop on versus single core 1-ghz Droid cells.
Finally: Stores like Newegg and Tiger Direct will always be around in some capacity. How they would change is anybody's guess but so far they are doing quite well doing what they are doing.
"Why don't you buy a laptop?"
Because I don't want one. Most sit on a desk anyway. At best they migrate to the couch. Which I would argue is better suited for a tablet anyway, and my smart phone does a good enough job as it is. I do not want a pre-assembled POS. I like getting the components I want. I like being able to get a video card that isn't as slow as something offered 5 years ago, or costs about 1200$ extra. I don't want a CPU with bitched out cores, or throttling down to save on battery power. I want mine to dim the GD lights when I turn it on, and to give me a breeze when the fans rev up. I would also like to have the opportunity to have say 8 HD if I want to without having to have a daisy chain of usb all around me. I want to be able to upgrade only pieces I need without throwing everything away each time. I want to put everything together like logos, and then then load everything *I* want on it, nothing more, or less.
In short, I think newegg or others (NCIX is my store of choice) shouldn't be worried at all.
We are all going have to go back to be a little bit of a wrench head as times will get very tough. This spells for a serviceable PC that can be upgraded piece by piece. Is the bus not the bottleneck any more? Upgrades were always a half step because on the bus being the bottleneck.
FTFA: But the tablets and ultrathin laptops that are today's hot sellers don't let you so much as swap in more RAM
This is Slashdot... within three weeks of a new "can't touch that" device hitting the shelves, someone (here) will have added deep-scan sonar, at least one laser-based weapon, and a cold-fusion battery-charging system. All of this on top of 64 Gb of flash.
Please... don't tell us that we can't upgrade these devices.It might be true that Newegg won't be able to immediately supply the parts we need, but they'll get there, eventually.
Sheesh!