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Tech Shoppers in the UK Ditch Desktop PCs and DVD Players (ofcom.org.uk)
Brits are ditching DVD players and desktop PCs and are increasingly turning to newer technology such as smart TVs and smart watches, Ofcom research has found. From the research: Shoppers in the UK are predicted to spend billions of pounds again this year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and much of that is expected to be spent buying tech online. So, Ofcom has crunched the numbers on which tech devices people have been buying in recent years, and which ones they're getting rid of.
Ownership of digital devices such as smart TVs, smart watches and smartphones has grown significantly in recent years, as more people need a constant connection to the internet -- internet users say they spend an average of 24 hours a week online. By contrast, MP3 players, DVD players and desktop computers seem to be falling out of favour as smartphone use continues to grow, particularly for browsing and streaming. Meanwhile, the popularity of tablets and e-readers seems to have peaked. Ownership of both is significantly higher than it was seven years ago, but has levelled out in the last few years.
Ownership of digital devices such as smart TVs, smart watches and smartphones has grown significantly in recent years, as more people need a constant connection to the internet -- internet users say they spend an average of 24 hours a week online. By contrast, MP3 players, DVD players and desktop computers seem to be falling out of favour as smartphone use continues to grow, particularly for browsing and streaming. Meanwhile, the popularity of tablets and e-readers seems to have peaked. Ownership of both is significantly higher than it was seven years ago, but has levelled out in the last few years.
Where have I heard this before? Ahh yes, when it was going to be completely "replaced" by the tablet...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
were they buying DVD players in 2017?
Just not upgrading. These things have become commodities. No one ever complains microwave ovens are being ditched just because no one goes mad over buying them anymore. People are just spending money on the next new shiny things.
People are building their own desktop computers by purchasing the components they want to use. Demand is massive.
Because nowadays, there's barely a point in replacing them.
A 6 year old PC can still play modern games. And games used to be the only thing left that required non-professionals to follow the expensive upgrade cycle.
PCs just are what they always were: A tool for universal data processing.
It's not their fault they were wasted on useless consumer blobs running fixed-function modules ("app[lication]s") to waste their lives.
But of course the money media must keep up the state that anything but by-definition-unsustainable exponentially exponential growing growth is the devil, and the stable balance of infinitely recycling resources that all surviving things in the universe have in common literally means literal death for being Literally Hitler(TM). Literally. ... /s
As that's the only way they can keep leeching on society, by making us work, without working themselves.
Because everyone already has a computer and don't feel the need to buy a new one every year!
Other than gamers who want the latest hardware, most people are content with a computer from 2010... I should know, my PC is from 2010 and still more than usable enough after upgrading to an SSD and changing the GPU to keep up with games.
Fine DVD plsyers ar probsbly a duinge marcket but what about BD anf 4K Bd players. Ore does tfa mean any player for disc based video??
The "Bang for buck" ratio has deteriorated.
ie:
8086 -> 80286 -> good BFBR "Bang For Buck Ratio"
80286 -> 80386 -> good BFBR
80386 -> 80486 -> excellent BFBR [ VESA local bus, faster ram ]
80486 -> pentium -> good BFBR [ pci bus, more ram, much faster speeds, MMX ]
Pentium -> Pentium 4 -> good BFBR [ pcie, more ram, much faster speeds, better video cards, etc ]
Pentium 4 - > Quad Core or Core2 - > excellent BFBR [ pcie, next gen, DDR3/DDR2 memory, much better cores, and more of them ]
Now, we are in the era where we:
-Add slightly faster ram, at the cost of latency - shitty BFBR
-Add slightly faster video cards, at a very large cost - shitty BFBR
-Add slightly faster CPUs, at an obscence cost -- very shitty BFBR
so the BFBR has decreased, where you can spend another $1000, to get 10-15% better performance, measured in "seconds" for most tasks, or less, or a few more FPS, which anything above 30 would be unnoticeable.
spend $100, get an SSD, and make it feel like a new system.
Spend $1000, get a slight performance boost.
I'm still using a 2600k, with 16gb, with a 7770HD video card, I see no reason to upgrade.
a resurgence in PC gaming has helped mask that a bit, fueled mostly by the insane popularity of Fortnight and PUBG, but folks are buying less and PCs. They'll buy one or two for Junior to do the homework on but they don't usually upgrade them much.
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It's taken all this time to notice? Been like that all over the world for some time. Guess the editors must be over 35....
You mean the box under my old TV is included in the TV itself, alongside some spyware. Thanks.
"Tech shoppers in the UK dont want to be able to repair their own PC, or watch movies when not connected to the internet"
Why does the UK have Black Friday? That doesn't make any sense.
The problem is almost nobody is building high quality PC software these days. Most new development is out in the 'cloud' with the PC being treated like the old 'dumb terminals' from the Main Frame era. The stuff running on the PC now is mostly front end client software that just sends commands to the servers in the cloud.
Once upon a time, all the cool new software was running on a PC that was not connected at all to the internet. Local databases, spreadsheets, word processors, etc. were all designed to work on a standalone PC with you controlling all your data. I think the pendulum can swing back and bring demand for more HEDT machines if compelling PC software once again is created. The backlash against big cloud providers that either abuse your data for their own profit, or fail to protect it from hackers will be a major factor in the pendulum swing if it happens.
When Ryzen came out I thought it was time to upgrade and throw AMD a bone. So I bought a new computer system. Motherboard, CPU, but then... the DRAM and NAND were expensive like heck and the GPU prices were ludicrous because of those god damned coin miners. So I put an old GPU card on it and got lower end memory and NAND products.
I ended up with a M.2 NAND drive which was not any larger than the SATA one I had in my old PC and cost about as much if not more... A couple months passed then Meltdown and Spectre came around. So basically I've left it in another floor collecting dust while I'm still working on my old PC. I can't feel assed about transferring the file systems and applications from my "old" PC to the new one. Oh and the case they got me had no 5 1/4" frontal drive bays whatsoever for my legacy discs so I had to buy an external reader. At one point I thought I was better off with a laptop.
I blame the memory cartel pricing, obscene GPU prices which are like 2x what they should be right now, and the CPU manufacturers for a) screwing it up b) Intel keeps spinning new revisions of the same shit over and over and calls it a new product.
So it is little wonder few people want to upgrade. Also 4K just made everything more expensive and it is useless for gaming.
DVD player? I haven't seen one in years. And desktops have only been found in libraries since tablets hit the market.
Everything has this cycle, where it gets to the point that what you already have is good enough, and further small tweaks do not justify the cost of replacing.
they are all buying Telescreens in Oceania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The sound of the D5 is generally Dolby Digital, and its code rate is 384~448kbps. D9 generally has DTS (as long as the positive film is not too long), and there is THX certification, DTS code rate is much higher than Dolby Digital, the lowest is 768kbps, the highest is up to 1.5Mbps. And the DTS encoding capacity is also amazing. Sometimes the D9 can also be equipped with LPCM lossless sound. Therefore, the D9 format of the disc, of course, the sound effect is undoubtedhttps://www.newbecca.com/product/10075941340