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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.
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.
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.
...that's also because when you buy a PC? You don't need to buy another for several years, and just swapping in the newest no-extra-power-needed graphics card is a huge performance bump whenever the existing GPU gets sluggish. When a GPU that can be slapped into any existing WalMart beige box is under $200 and can play even the newest games decently? Folks aren't dropping big coin on a whole new system.
- WolfWings, too lazy to login to /. in way too long.
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.