tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post1323159637616316283..comments2024-03-22T11:13:26.808+00:00Comments on Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle: The PC market is collapsing. Thought from a commiter Usermbphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-69723087885574049082013-04-12T08:01:01.575+00:002013-04-12T08:01:01.575+00:00Hi JT, I agree that PCs are going to be around for...Hi JT, I agree that PCs are going to be around for a long time. The market for powerful pcs is going to be a lot smaller though and I don't think it is a given that Microsoft will continue to dominate it. The market will be smaller because a lot of the time users no longer need a PC. It will be smaller because as you point out the replacement cycle has stretched. I think Microsoft's ownership of this shrinking market is under threat because they finally have serious competition from Apple and from Linux. Moreover the rise of cloud computing has made it far easier to switch from one platform to another. In this context I think Windows 8 was a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. Facing tough competition in a shrinking market they should have made sure that the core base of PC users was delighted with the new operating system. Instead they brought out an operating system that annoyed the very people who are going to still buy PCs.mbphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-73593905456154363382013-04-11T19:06:49.609+00:002013-04-11T19:06:49.609+00:00PCs on the whole aren't going anywhere. The re...PCs on the whole aren't going anywhere. The reason that the market is down currently is a somewhat complex issue, but one easily addressed IMO.<br /><br />First, laying the blame on MS and Windows 8 is misplaced. While it's true that Win8 is not a good desktop OS, geared to traditional controls, that doesn't make it a bad OS; in fact, it's very good at being a touch screen interface by all accounts.<br /><br />Second, MS and others need to realize that a new OS is not going to drive PC sales any more. Daily use software is going to drive PC sales, specifically when your PC can no longer perform adequately for daily tasks. Think about it; when do the non-savvy folks start wondering about buying a new PC? When their current PC isn't fast enough, or runs low on HDD space, or anything similar. <br /><br />Third, and this is really the key point: we've hit a sort of saturation point when it comes to PC performance vs cost. It used to be that to buy a low end PC, you were buying several years old technology that had already been rapidly outpaced from a performance perspective. Now, however, that's not really the case, even in the higher end PC gaming system realm. I built a PC almost 2 years ago, out of parts that were nearly a year old at the time, and it's still more than adequate by modern gaming standards. The upgrade cycle at the bleeding edge has slowed to nearly a standstill; how much slower is it for the low end of things? Far, far more, as shown by the decline in PC sales.<br /><br />So, once again, to the PC naysayers, declaring it dead, that the era is ended: Shut. Up. There are too many paradigms where mobile devices simply can't take the place of a modern desktop PC.JThelenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01154318552494642680noreply@blogger.com