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Sales Of PCs, Laptops, Tablets Continue to Fall, Hit Lowest Point Since 2011 (canalys.com)
According to the latest numbers provided by marketing research firm Canalys, the shipments of PC devices -- which includes desktops, notebooks, all-in-ones, two-in-ones, and tablets -- amounted to 101 million units in the first quarter of 2016. The number underscores a 13% decline from the same period a year ago, and it is also the lowest volume since the second quarter of 2011. Apple led the chart among PC OEMs, moving 14 million units (suffering 17% fall), followed by Chinese conglomerate Lenovo. HP assumed the third position, with Dell and Samsung closely following it. Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst said in a press statement: The global PC market had a bad start to 2016 and it is difficult to see any bright spots for vendors in the coming quarters. The tablet boom has faded in the distance and the market is fully mature. Global shipments declines are expected to continue unless vendors bring transformational innovation to the market. Apple and Microsoft are propping up shipments in established markets with their detachables, but price points make them less affordable in low-income countries. Although other vendors are coming to market with cheaper alternatives, they are unlikely to have a big impact on volumes in the short term. The number of people looking to buy their first PC is at an all-time low and 2016 is likely to bring yet more turmoil to global PC vendors.
When the OS starts costing more than the CPU....
Yep. I'm typing this on an Alienware M17x, which came out in 2009 and still does everything I need it to do beautifully as effectively a desktop computer.
One can actually thank the advent of tablets for making the use of older computers with newer software possible, a lot of scaled-down mobile devices use variants of what had been desktop or higher-end laptop components years earlier. As software companies are forced to write for less horsepower to have good applications on the mobile devices the side-effect is supporting slower, older computers.
They're trying to counteract that with rules as to what chipsets and processors new OSes will run on, but if they're not careful they'll end up with a fractured market like cell phones.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Smartphone sales growth continues to be explosive."
Maybe we should just add smartphones to the definition of "PCs" (a device you can carry in your pocket does seem to be a "personal" device, anyway) and go on with life?
Innovation didn't stagnate, it just is being focused on a new form factor.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Yep, computers are "good enough" for most people now. Heck, I'm still running my quad core from 2008. It still works fine and compiles quickly, I see no reason to upgrade. Even if I did, I'd have to deal with EFI and a bunch of other new things so I'm not in a hurry to upgrade. My laptop on the other hand is getting old and slow (it's probably 10 years old now.) However, I don't use it as much as I used to, so again, not in a hurry to replace it. I use my Nexus 7 (2012) still for most things I'd use the laptop for, and even that is starting to get slow. I'll probably have to replace the tablet soon, but the desktop and laptop will still last for a while.
I figure when my main PC dies (which will probably be years from now) I'll upgrade.
You can't chalk all of it up to Microsoft fear/hate, certainly, but that might be one factor.
One of my own small businesses is a clear example. We would have bought a handful of new laptops and desktop workstations for various people at least 2-3 years ago, but the usual complaints about Windows 8 put us off and we were waiting for 10 to fix the problems. Since 10 is a complete non-starter for that business because of the privacy and robustness concerns (dealing with potentially sensitive information = instant compliance violations if we can't fully control our equipment) we're still making do with 5+ year old machines.
That's increasingly painful, because we're talking about laptops that now have sub-2 hour battery life if they're not plugged in, several machines that have small, spinning disk storage, and so on. We would drop thousands on new PC hardware in a heartbeat, if someone would just give us anything close to what we actually need, which is basically modern hardware + Windows 7 + a couple of the updates that newer Windows versions do offer to support that modern hardware (USB3, hi-res screens, etc.).
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.