We've got a couple of doom-and-gloom PC sales discussions going on but this article may be putting a capstone over it.
The article isn't long, but it's all worth reading. I am not a fan of copying and pasting entire articles - three paragraphs is all I think should be used as proper form.
That said, I'll summarize.
Analysts' predictions of the decline in sales were off by half - the decline was double what they thought would happen.
Shares of major PC manufacturers all slid. Microsoft's shares slid.
Windows 8 isn't being well received and analysts claim it's got a stupid interface. (I agree - I hate it. It doesn't seem to do anything well except prevent me from finding stuff easily.)
Anyway, here's the full article: http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/11/technology/pc-sales/index.html
Well I think the movement has been away from desktop builds for sometime. The age of tablets and laptops is upon us. My latest desktop could very well be my last. I can get the same productivity and yes game play from a laptop hooked up to a monitor, if I want a larger screen. But I think there will be a market for the desktop for quite sometime to come.
Consoles rule! :P
I really think Win 8's interface is too "pre-school," but the OS itself appears to be quite robust. Much shorter boot-up times (than Win 7) and gaming performance differences are neglible (from the reviews I've read). I'll be going 8 on my next rig unless I find a deal on killer hardware w/ Win 7. Win boot-up times drive me absolutely insane!!!
What??!! No Ubuntu for you?!!
I've got 8 on this laptop. Once I get to an app I'm more or less happy - though how Microsoft and Skype managed to screw up Skype by working together is something I don't understand.
I've got 8 on my laptop. I'm not a fan. The whole front end app page (or charms or whatever the hell they're called) just seems like a pointless extra layer. Most apps take me to my desktop anyway so why add this ugly crap up front?
My laptop also sometimes has a CPU fart and only partially logs me in. In these cases the boot-up takes forever and I'm informed by MS that Win 8 has created a temporary login for me and that there may be a "serious issue" that needs looking into. I just click log out and log in and things are back to normal. Irritating but it only happens occasionally. I tried the recommended fix of creating a new login, copying everything from the old login over and then deleting the old login but I still get the same issue.
I'll stick with my Win 7 desktop.
If you go to google news tech section, there are several articles on the decline of PCs. I liked this one
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/04/11/the-death-of-the-pc-has-not-been-exaggerated/
Wonder what things will be like a year from now if the economy is better and XP support ends?
Interesting article J2D. I do think Win8 was released in a jacked up manner. They should never have tried to force what is essentially a touch screen interface onto a keyboard and mouse system. I hate the color scheme and look personally.
Quote from: junk2drive on April 11, 2013, 08:03:47 PM
If you go to google news tech section, there are several articles on the decline of PCs. I liked this one
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/04/11/the-death-of-the-pc-has-not-been-exaggerated/
Wonder what things will be like a year from now if the economy is better and XP support ends?
Great article.
Quote from: Centurion40 on April 11, 2013, 01:33:56 PM
What??!! No Ubuntu for you?!!
I'm wondering how the long the Canadian release will take! A regular on one of the Canadian Hardware forums heard that there may be no release in Canada for at least 1 year!!! I may end up doing my own Ubuntu PC. Bastards!
IMO security is a big factor killing PCs. When you have more security programs than apps running you know its all fubar. Time to go do something else.
There have been a number of articles about the decline of PC purchases in the Wall St. Journal. Many are tied to the amazing sales slump that Dell is in and their floundering attempts to reorgainize.
PCs are very powerful machines that can do a bunch of things. Smart phones and tablets can do a few things - but that is enough for a lot of uses.
Lets face it. Windows 8 is a reason to avoid buying a PC. There is not any new hardware that really needs a processer upgrade to run. There are not any compelling reasons to buy a new PC from a market wide perspective.
Quote from: airboy on April 24, 2013, 09:34:31 AM
PCs are very powerful machines that can do a bunch of things. Smart phones and tablets can do a few things - but that is enough for a lot of uses.
Lets face it. Windows 8 is a reason to avoid buying a PC. There is not any new hardware that really needs a processer upgrade to run. There are not any compelling reasons to buy a new PC from a market wide perspective.
I think that you've hit the nail on the head. Apart from government and business needing PCs, the average user might not require a full-blown pc anymore. Phones, tablets, netbooks, etc. are probably filling the bill.
Quote from: Centurion40 on April 24, 2013, 09:45:08 AM
Quote from: airboy on April 24, 2013, 09:34:31 AM
PCs are very powerful machines that can do a bunch of things. Smart phones and tablets can do a few things - but that is enough for a lot of uses.
Lets face it. Windows 8 is a reason to avoid buying a PC. There is not any new hardware that really needs a processer upgrade to run. There are not any compelling reasons to buy a new PC from a market wide perspective.
I think that you've hit the nail on the head. Apart from government and business needing PCs, the average user might not require a full-blown pc anymore. Phones, tablets, netbooks, etc. are probably filling the bill.
Confirming what we already knew: Microsoft's PC department committed suicide when it decided to get into the console business.
In retrospect, the move to consoles was going to happen whether MS got in on the action or not. Too many gamers want a $300 gaming experience and not a $1500 one.
^Agree. Having to shell out between 300 and 600 for a new console every 5 years or so vs. shelling out 1500+ for a new PC rig every 5 years is a big difference.
If both desktops and laptops go out of vogue because of tablets or other devices and if consoles move to the STEAM model where you no longer own a game disk and must always be online to play single player then gaming is not worth it anymore. Will we be stuck playing angry birdies the rest of our lives?
Maybe there will be a big comeback in board (war)games?
The history of programming computers has been one of a swing between two poles: fat client and thin client.
By "fat client" I mean a machine that can do heavy processing and holds lots of code. Like an FPS such as Call of Duty.
By "thin client" I mean a machine that might be as little as a monitor and keyboard. All the processing and code is done off-site. Like a bank ATM.
Where any program (or game) is on that spectrum is a mixture of hardware ability, hardware price, bandwidth availability, and bandwidth cost. We (computer users) constantly go through the cycle, though it may take years (or decades) to swing from one extreme to the other.
So, yes, it's likely that at some point PC games as we know them will go out of fashion - maybe even close to extinct. And then they'll come back. Maybe not in the same form, but eventually a fat client will be in vogue again.
Currently with the cheap availability of high speed internet (both wired and wireless) and the widespread availability of tablets and smart phones (which are essentially dumb PCs) we're moving toward the thin client model.
A nice explanation that makes sense. Thanks LB.
So now my question is what quality of gaming can you do with a thin client model? Sounds like FPSs and hardcore strategy games will no longer be.
Quote from: W8taminute on April 24, 2013, 02:10:56 PM
A nice explanation that makes sense. Thanks LB.
So now my question is what quality of gaming can you do with a thin client model? Sounds like FPSs and hardcore strategy games will no longer be.
Take a look at tablet games. FPS's and hardcore strat ain't the same! I suppose that the good news might be, as we all begin to approach old age, tablet-esque games might be all we'll be interested in handling!!
Quote from: W8taminute on April 24, 2013, 02:10:56 PM
A nice explanation that makes sense. Thanks LB.
So now my question is what quality of gaming can you do with a thin client model? Sounds like FPSs and hardcore strategy games will no longer be.
It all depends on how easily the numbers can be crunched on the server and fed back to you.
Even the thinnest of clients will typically have at least some code running on them. Typically it's a mixture of the two.
That said, Small General Eastern Front (a review is in our publication pipeline) offers a solid operational wargaming experience on the Android OS (I played on my phone - a Galaxy III S). So it's very possible.
I don't see why FPS games couldn't be played with a thin client - though the graphical quality may deteriorate without heavy code and a robust GPU.