PC Sales down 14% in first quarter YoY

[dma0991]

Maybe it is just me, but there are a lot of non-technical people I know who don't seem to have any interest in owning a general purpose PC. I remember a roommate of mine bought the original iPhone, and he said (and yes I did roll my eyes afterwards) "What do I need a computer for anymore?"

He probably states that because the platform at its infancy seemed to hold quite a lot of potential. Its only through years of use that concludes nothing beats a good mouse and keyboard when it comes to precision typing.

Its probably good enough to view content or browse the web, maybe short text communication like Twitter, Facebook, etc but anything more than that, its a PITA. I couldn't even write a lengthy post + images here as fast or easy with a handheld.

Tablet/smartphone makers are running out of gimmicks as well, giving users less reason to upgrade. Screen size could only be so large and performance could only be that good before it affects battery life. If laptop/desktops could be "good enough", smartphone/tablet can be "good enough" as well and they're getting there faster.

 

[Arzachel]

I can totally see that. Mobility is great but nothing beats a a decent sized keyboard and a mouse/trackpad of some kind.

A tablet with a stylus and a decent digitizer is not much worse and often quite a lot better for taking notes, I find. Sketching things with a mouse or even worse - a trackpad - is a pain.

 

[podspi]

@ podspi

Did your roommate prepare papers for a class, did he make any kind of presentations, any kind of spreadsheet programs? Do he actually do any productivity work on his iphone? I dont mean to insult him, perhaps he really does not have any need of any kind of productivity uses. If so, fine. Perhaps a smartphone is adequate if all you want to do is social network and browse the web, although I still cant imagine how you would want to be permanently limited to the small screen and lack of true keyboard for input.

Otherwise, I dont see how a laptop at least wont be necessary at some point. I work at a large university, and nearly every student I see has a laptop, I have seen maybe one or two tablets in the 2 years I have been working there. Nearly everyone also has a smartphone, of course, but they must have concluded that is inadequate since nearly everyone has a laptop as well.

I have no idea, though I would imagine so. I'm not saying I think computers are no longer necessary or useful, I am saying there is a growing perception that they are no longer necessary as smartphones and tablets become more advanced.

I see a lot of university students taking notes on tablets, mostly iPads but a few are using Surfaces. I would actually argue a tablet with active digitizer is more useful than a laptop or iPad in-class. For paper preparation there is no substitute for a keyboard, but most people are not doing much typing once they leave university.

I think that one day most non-enthusiasts will use smartphones as their primary computing devices, with docking stations for when they need a keyboard/mouse/large-screen output.

 

[Idontcare]

I think that one day most non-enthusiasts will use smartphones as their primary computing devices, with docking stations for when they need a keyboard/mouse/large-screen output.

I too think that is the future of computing. Your phone will become your mobile computer and as you move from docking station to docking station - be it at home or work or on an airplane - you upgrade and downgrade the human I/O (screens, keyboards, touchscreen, etc) to fit your situation.

Things that need real computing oomph will be ported to the cloud, the real computing will be farmed out to cloud processors and your mobile phone in a docking station really just becomes a dumb terminal for lack of a better term.

In the longer term I expect the I/O devices will be replaced with thought readers of sorts, basically think the same thoughts you think now when guiding your fingers to type on a keyboard only to have those thoughts detected by an earpiece or headphones of some kind and the smartphone picks it up on the fly. Complete with content detection and filtration to avoid emberrasing interjections in the middle of emails as are expected to occur 19 times a day (text in link may be NSFW).

 

[frozentundra123456]

I have no idea, though I would imagine so. I'm not saying I think computers are no longer necessary or useful, I am saying there is a growing perception that they are no longer necessary as smartphones and tablets become more advanced.

I see a lot of university students taking notes on tablets, mostly iPads but a few are using Surfaces. I would actually argue a tablet with active digitizer is more useful than a laptop or iPad in-class. For paper preparation there is no substitute for a keyboard, but most people are not doing much typing once they leave university.

I think that one day most non-enthusiasts will use smartphones as their primary computing devices, with docking stations for when they need a keyboard/mouse/large-screen output.

I agree that one day that could happen. However, the conflict is in the software. Unless the phone run x86 it is hard to see it replacing the x86 ecosystem, no matter how many free office suites there are. For the average home user, perhaps some form of (ugh) android is sufficient, but for real data base, productivity, data analysis, I cant see it.

 

[dma0991]

I think that one day most non-enthusiasts will use smartphones as their primary computing devices, with docking stations for when they need a keyboard/mouse/large-screen output.

That concept exists now with Ubuntu phone where the usual Ubuntu desktop experience is available just by docking. I like the concept but Unity is still a big NO for me. Not sure about mainstream users, they may like it.

 

[Idontcare]

That concept exists now with Ubuntu phone where the usual Ubuntu desktop experience is available just by docking. I like the concept but Unity is still a big NO for me. Not sure about mainstream users, they may like it.

For $35 you can buy a docking station for your Motorola Atrix smartphone and connect it to an HD screen plus any USB devices (keyboard, mouse, etc) you like.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Complete with content detection and filtration to avoid emberrasing interjections in the middle of emails as are expected to occur 19 times a day (text in link may be NSFW).

"Ooh, Mia Sara looks pretty hot in this scene. Wonder whether she's done full frontol?"
*loading Mr Skin*

 

[dma0991]

For $35 you can buy a docking station for your Motorola Atrix smartphone and connect it to an HD screen plus any USB devices (keyboard, mouse, etc) you like.

Android ironically does work too well with a mouse. You could definitely get used to it but going from touch it'll feel strange. Tried running Android with Bluestacks(an Android emulator for desktop), uninstalled a few weeks later. Still prefer Ubuntu's approach in giving the usual desktop experience when docked.

 

[Cerb]

At least where I live, most people just don't care about upgrading.

"Does it work?"
"Yes."
"Then why would you want to change it?"

In short, I know a few people with ~10 year old computers who refuse to upgrade them only because they are still working.

Me too. I wonder about the use of solid caps, in the presence of such people (capacitors blowing has allowed me to get several people into the modern age, lately ).

 

[tweakboy]

Hardcore workstation people that use autocad, studiomax maya Premiere sony vegas sonar X2 , will always be PC people. The people that go to tablet and phones are peeps that dont know about PCs and like the neat features on it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Me too. I wonder about the use of solid caps, in the presence of such people (capacitors blowing has allowed me to get several people into the modern age, lately ).

Solid caps on motherboards are wonderful. In fact, I wish that they would be the default on boards these days. The idea being, that motherboards could serve out a useful life longer, and avoid becoming e-waste for as long as possible. Especially since CPUs and platforms aren't increasing in performance nearly as much as they used to, so computers (and their motherboards) can stay useful longer.

Then again, I don't remember when the last mobo that I purchased failed due to bad caps. I know a couple of people that had that happen to them, but I don't think it happened to me. I did have an ASRock 865PE board just up and die on me one day though. Never quite knew what happened to it.

Had an A64 and an Athlon XP rig continue functioning for a long time, so I sold the CPU/mobo/RAM when I decommissioned them.

My Gigabyte P35-DS3R v1.0 boards from 2007 are still kicking strong, but those were part of Gigabyte's "durable" series. So they have lived up to their name. Very durable boards.

 

[Cerb]

My main rig is still a GA-P35-DS3R V2.0 . I'm part of the problem (for PC sellers, anyway).

I agree about the ewaste bit. The thing is, for most people, a Windows upgrade is a hardware replacement, so they stick with XP Home, or Vista Basic, until it's time for a new computer (I'm going totally off-topic, only to unintentionally make an entirely on-topic statement! ). That many notebooks come with semi-custom firmwares and such, preventing updates OSes from fully functioning (AMD had it right, there!), hasn't helped, either.

 

[Olikan]

charlie is mad

http://semiaccurate.com/2013/04/16/microsoft-tries-a-new-windows-8-damage-control-message/

i have to give kudos to charlie, he always entretain me...even when things are completely wrong

 

[ViRGE]

charlie is mad

http://semiaccurate.com/2013/04/16/microsoft-tries-a-new-windows-8-damage-control-message/

i have to give kudos to charlie, he always entretain me...even when things are completely wrong

Charlie's always mad. Sometimes he even has a point, but at 2800 words that silly diatribe was about 2000 words longer than was necessary.

 

[dastral]

I too think that is the future of computing. Your phone will become your mobile computer and as you move from docking station to docking station - Things that need real computing oomph will be ported to the cloud, the real computing will be farmed out to cloud processors and your mobile phone in a docking station really just becomes a dumb terminal for lack of a better term

We already have this with thin clients (dumb citrix terminals).

Today i have a i3-2100 / 8800GT to play league of legends & do typing/web.
My mobile device is a Galaxy Tab (the 1st 7incher that takes a SIM).

I have absolutely no doubt that a Galaxy Tab IX with docking station would do the trick for me... no need for more oomph

If cloud & broadband services progress as expected (see OnLive / DropBox) there wont be any need for more CPU or GPU power or Storage.

 

[Qianglong]

Bingo. The height of the stupidity was enforcing the Metro UI on Windows Server 2012.

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/09/12/...tro-touch-ui-to-servers-to-stop-the-bleeding/

 

[Matt1970]

My main rig is still a GA-P35-DS3R V2.0 . I'm part of the problem (for PC sellers, anyway).

I agree about the ewaste bit. The thing is, for most people, a Windows upgrade is a hardware replacement, so they stick with XP Home, or Vista Basic, until it's time for a new computer (I'm going totally off-topic, only to unintentionally make an entirely on-topic statement! ). That many notebooks come with semi-custom firmwares and such, preventing updates OSes from fully functioning (AMD had it right, there!), hasn't helped, either.

I have a P35 board as well running an overclocked e8400. Microsoft sure as heck won't be throwing anything at it that it can't handle.