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It Was Flat Sales That Helped Microsoft Become America's #5 PC Maker (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
Microsoft was the fifth-biggest PC maker in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year, according to industry advisory firm Gartner. The top spot in the U.S. belongs to HP, with about 4.5 million machines sold, ahead of Dell at 3.8 million, Lenovo at 2.3 million, and Apple at 2 million. The gap between fourth and fifth is pretty big -- Microsoft sold only 0.6 million Surface devices last quarter -- but it suggests that Microsoft's PC division is heading in the right direction, with sales 1.9 percent higher than the same quarter last year. The company pushed down to sixth place was Acer. The current quarter should be better still; the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, and Surface Studio have all been given hardware refreshes which, when combined with the always-busy holiday season, should stimulate higher sales.
Globally, both Gartner and IDC reported a flat PC market (up 0.1 percent in Gartner's view, down 0.9 percent in IDC's), after the previous quarter's modest growth.
"The PC market continued to be driven by steady corporate PC demand, which was driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades," said one Gartner analyst.
In defining what constitutes a PC, Gartner includes notebooks and "premium" ultramobile devices -- but does not include iPads or Chromebooks.
Globally, both Gartner and IDC reported a flat PC market (up 0.1 percent in Gartner's view, down 0.9 percent in IDC's), after the previous quarter's modest growth.
"The PC market continued to be driven by steady corporate PC demand, which was driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades," said one Gartner analyst.
In defining what constitutes a PC, Gartner includes notebooks and "premium" ultramobile devices -- but does not include iPads or Chromebooks.
Link for reference.
New Windows versions have dictated hardware refresh up to now. With Windows 10 being the last version, there's no line in the sand. Hardware is good enough. You don't need faster at this point, the bottlenecks are external. Especially office work.
They are going to have to make software even more bloated to encourage hardware buys, or expect that division to suffer.
Bigger point is Acer offers a lot more models then Microsoft and yet they seem to really be losing market share even to Microsoft. Makes me wonder how long before Acer is done? Personally for me Acer has always been taboo in quality and warranty so I have always avoided them. Guess maybe I am not the only one?
That's the only question I have.
I know they are expensive, but people seem to love them.
Someone's sales are not flat or there would be no change in the ranking of PC manufacturers.
Was the industry flat and Microsoft gained over a rival? Were both the industry and Microsoft flat but Microsoft's rivals had enough change to shift Microsoft's position? Was Microsoft flat, but industry overall changes caused Microsoft's rank to change? The headline is ambiguous. I guess I should be happy that the title wasn't "You will never believe what outrageous thing happened to Microsoft's ranking".
I wonder about how Microsoft ended up selling so many Surface thingies. Most everybody hated the manufacturing quality of Surface Pro 4. Botched firmware updates happened too, like the one this week that disables the touch screen and for which you need to send your computer for repairs. What did the other companies do that let Microsoft take 5th position?
Seems odd, they perform an identical role to Windows PCs or Mac PCs
Microsoft could stop selling their operating system for non-microsoft computers. Just like google and apple do.
Microsoft computers, like google computers, are not built by microsoft. I suppose one could argue apple doesn't build there's either but they do design and integrate them themselves.
Or they could just go exclusive and only support HP or Lenovo.
THat would definitely drive the upgrade cycle.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Seems odd, they perform an identical role to Chromebooks
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Apples computer sales increased by 18% last year. That means just their increase alone exceeded all of the microsoft sales. Why isn't that news?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Microsoft, GO AWAY.
Now that you're planning that, plan for this! Come see!
Yep, I said it. Come at me, bro.
driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades,"
So your computer upgrades to Windows 10 behind your back, becomes dog slow, and you throw more money at Microsoft? Who is cackling with glee here?
Most tablets run a toy operating system with no real filesystem and limited storage options. Many of them don't even support real removable storage. They don't have a USB host connector.
Tablets and phones should be excluded, as they are not a true PC, and cannot ever replace a desktop or laptop PC. To get a chromebook that can come anywhere close to the performance, storage, and local software, you have to spend as much as for a good quality (ie NOT a Dell!) laptop! PC sales have reached saturation point, with most five to six years old PCs and laptops being good enough for most people. That does not mean that the PCs and laptops are going to go away any time soon. Anyone who has tried to get any real work done on a phone or tablet knows this!
I believe that Chromebooks are a lot closer in functionality to tablets than they are to PCs... Especially Android-based tablets; here are several that have file systems, storage options, removable storage, and USB host connector capability (with an OTG cable adapter sometimes needed).
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The dup article touts Microsoft's US PC sales once again, overlooking the fact that Microsoft's miserable 600k worldwide PC sales are less than one sixth of Acer's worldwide PC sales. WTF.
With 1% annual growth rate the technical term for Microsoft's PC effort is "vanity project". Looks like the spin department is desperately feeding the media to try to keep it on life support.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
My home office / light gaming machine is a 2011 MBP that I bought new. I'm using a 12 year old 22" Samsung flat panel monitor. For a couple of months I've been looking for a replacement. Ideally it would be an AIO of some sort. I'm not really interested in another Mac. However the Dell XPS 27 is at least the same price as an iMac. Both are using 7th gen i7 process when the I-9 are available. The graphics cards in these are also a couple years out of date. Look into a desktop with a 4k display in the 27" range and you're still close to $2300 US. I can't see that money for two year old (at least) tech. Asus has a 27" AIO that you can't seem to buy, Acer isn't much cheaper. Basically there really isn't much worth buying in the PC arena unless you want to spend a small fortune for dated gear.
Tablets could be all that some people need - even higher-end phones. All that's needed is a decent keyboard (some bluetooth models come close), reasonable connectivity (many cheap Windows tablets and 2-in-1s have a reasonable set of connections - USB, HDMI, audio, sometimes more. Unfortunately, tablets and 2-in-1s (including, I suspect, Surface) are treated as disposable like phones: no hardware support at all, and system software updates for 2-3 years at best. Interestingly, my cheap-junk RCA tablet, despite being abandoned by the OEM before the first year was up, still gets Windows 10 updates 3 years later and works well with them. It also runs Win32 software (like LibreOffice) fine. The display (a 10" screen) is marginal, but usable - with a better keyboard, it could serve as a light user's only computer. But I think the 10" screen is about the lower limit - a phablet or smaller would need to be able to work with a real display and keyboard, which many do not. Bigger would be better, and my RCA includes a micro-HDMI that could drive a monitor.
IMO the tendency of Surface, Apple, and Android to cut back on connectivity is the major thing holding them back, compared to generic Windows. Windows has evolved to where, like Linux, it will run on almost anything (except phones ...).
I still use decade old desktop PCs with 64-bit W7 HPE SP1 & Debian oldstable/Jessie v8.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Microsoft as a PC maker? I don't live in US of A, but have never seen a Microsoft Laptop or even a Surface tablet or whatever is called.
I have Microsoft mouses though. : )