4 ms·

I can’t think of any major, consumer-friendly reason? Right now, the PC market feels a bit stagnant.

by gallerdude 8y ago

IloveHN84 8y ago
Games
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Steam and online distribution way easier than in the 90's and 20's ?
  - boterock 8y ago
    Also I think maybe Fortnite's huge popularity and reach is making people buy computers.
    - Alex3917 8y ago
      Is Fortnite really that much better on a computer than on Switch or whatever?
      - discreditable 8y ago
        Most shooters are imho.
      - wiz21c 8y ago
        hmmm, on a pc you got the mouse control which are way better
    - debaserab2 8y ago
      What would they need to buy a PC for? It runs on every single platform out there.
      - saluki 8y ago
        I started playing first person shooters again last year. Player Unknown's Battleground. It takes a beast of a PC to play. Other players I play with online are always talking about upgrades and saving up for a complete new system with all the latest hardware. So I think fortnite and PUBG have definitely driven some growth in Gaming PC sales/hardware sales. Also the popularity of youtubers and streamers are driving kids and teens to ask for gaming PCs too. Now that PUBG is on Xbox there is a new influx of players who started playing it on console but wanted to move over to the PC version. Shooters on PC are much better than playing on a console, plus you usually get the features, updates and new maps first. But the feel of playing with a mouse and keyboard is way better on PC. Console ones are fun but I much prefer playing on a PC.
        earenndil 8y ago
        PUBG does require very high specs, but afaik fortnite has much lower requirements (owing to a competent development team, fewer polygons, and smaller textures) and will run on any potato. Haven't actually played either, but that's the impression I've gotten; I don't think people are rushing out to buy pcs for fortnite.
babaganoosh89 8y ago
Maybe it’s because of intel’s shift of 2 -> 4 cores, and 4 -> 6 cores for their consumer line of cpus. It’s relatively a bigger performance jump than in the past.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  I think it's fair to say AMD meditation is the root
- mtgx 8y ago
  That increase in cores doesn't come without an increase in price, so I don't think this reason is as important as you think it is.
cat199 8y ago
i'd guess that aggregate growth has outpaced other 'stagnating' factors which led to state of non-growth, aka the growth curves have adjusted for laptops, tablets, and smart phones
terminalcommand 8y ago
I think the interest in PCs grew, especially amongst the younger generation. With the new budget CPUs offering real good performance (a 8th gen i3 can offer approximately the same performance as a 7th gen i5), you can get much higher performance for your money than laptops. The price gap is much more evident when it comes to gaming. Among my friends in their 20s, most of them want to build a PC. It could be the case that my generation didn't experience the growth and the decline of the PC market and we don't appreciate the value of laptops yet. The hype for building a custom PC certainly exists. But from a consumer's standpoint, I also think laptops win in most cases. Correction: Thanks to the reply, I noticed that "PC Market" statistics included both Laptops and Desktop PCs. I am leaving this post as is, as it represents my ideas on why there is still a -possibly growing?- interest for desktop PCs.
- lovelearning 8y ago
  "PC shipment" seems to include desktops and laptops. Gartner describes the data[1] as "Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads." [1]: https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3881812 https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3881812
- mtgx 8y ago
  > a 8th gen i3 can offer approximately the same performance as a 7th gen i5 But is a 8th gen i3 significantly lower price than the 7th gen i5 when it came out? Because using your logic, that would be what would matter here. If it's not, then it may be due to the availability of Ryzen CPUs, too, which are cheaper for more cores.
- scarface74 8y ago
  I think the interest in PCs grew, especially amongst the younger generation. With the new budget CPUs offering real good performance (a 8th gen i3 can offer approximately the same performance as a 7th gen i5), you can get much higher performance for your money than laptops. The price gap is much more evident when it comes to gaming. The growth in the PC market had nothing to do with the consumer market. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/pc-market-appears-to-have-grown-for-the-first-time-since-2012/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/pc-market-appears-to... Gartner reports that the growth was driven by increased business sales and that consumer shipments declined. IDC similarly pointed to the "business-driven refresh cycle" as a reason for the increase. This mirrors Microsoft's financial reporting; the software giant distinguishes between business and consumer sales of Windows and Office, and the general pattern over the last few quarters is that business sales have been robust even as consumer demand continues to soften. Enterprises are migrating to Windows 10, and they're buying new hardware to do so.
codingdave 8y ago
From the source article linked in the first paragraph: "PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment”

I can’t think of any major, consumer-friendly reason? Right now, the PC market feels a bit stagnant.

IloveHN84 8y ago

Games

johnchristopher 8y ago
Steam and online distribution way easier than in the 90's and 20's ?
- boterock 8y ago
  Also I think maybe Fortnite's huge popularity and reach is making people buy computers.
  - Alex3917 8y ago
    Is Fortnite really that much better on a computer than on Switch or whatever?
    - discreditable 8y ago
      Most shooters are imho.
    - wiz21c 8y ago
      hmmm, on a pc you got the mouse control which are way better
  - debaserab2 8y ago
    What would they need to buy a PC for? It runs on every single platform out there.
    - saluki 8y ago
      I started playing first person shooters again last year. Player Unknown's Battleground. It takes a beast of a PC to play. Other players I play with online are always talking about upgrades and saving up for a complete new system with all the latest hardware. So I think fortnite and PUBG have definitely driven some growth in Gaming PC sales/hardware sales. Also the popularity of youtubers and streamers are driving kids and teens to ask for gaming PCs too. Now that PUBG is on Xbox there is a new influx of players who started playing it on console but wanted to move over to the PC version. Shooters on PC are much better than playing on a console, plus you usually get the features, updates and new maps first. But the feel of playing with a mouse and keyboard is way better on PC. Console ones are fun but I much prefer playing on a PC.
      - earenndil 8y ago
        PUBG does require very high specs, but afaik fortnite has much lower requirements (owing to a competent development team, fewer polygons, and smaller textures) and will run on any potato. Haven't actually played either, but that's the impression I've gotten; I don't think people are rushing out to buy pcs for fortnite.

babaganoosh89 8y ago

Maybe it’s because of intel’s shift of 2 -> 4 cores, and 4 -> 6 cores for their consumer line of cpus. It’s relatively a bigger performance jump than in the past.

agumonkey 8y ago
I think it's fair to say AMD meditation is the root
mtgx 8y ago
That increase in cores doesn't come without an increase in price, so I don't think this reason is as important as you think it is.

cat199 8y ago

i'd guess that aggregate growth has outpaced other 'stagnating' factors which led to state of non-growth, aka the growth curves have adjusted for laptops, tablets, and smart phones

terminalcommand 8y ago

I think the interest in PCs grew, especially amongst the younger generation. With the new budget CPUs offering real good performance (a 8th gen i3 can offer approximately the same performance as a 7th gen i5), you can get much higher performance for your money than laptops. The price gap is much more evident when it comes to gaming. Among my friends in their 20s, most of them want to build a PC. It could be the case that my generation didn't experience the growth and the decline of the PC market and we don't appreciate the value of laptops yet. The hype for building a custom PC certainly exists. But from a consumer's standpoint, I also think laptops win in most cases. Correction: Thanks to the reply, I noticed that "PC Market" statistics included both Laptops and Desktop PCs. I am leaving this post as is, as it represents my ideas on why there is still a -possibly growing?- interest for desktop PCs.

lovelearning 8y ago
"PC shipment" seems to include desktops and laptops. Gartner describes the data[1] as "Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads." [1]: https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3881812 https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3881812
mtgx 8y ago
> a 8th gen i3 can offer approximately the same performance as a 7th gen i5 But is a 8th gen i3 significantly lower price than the 7th gen i5 when it came out? Because using your logic, that would be what would matter here. If it's not, then it may be due to the availability of Ryzen CPUs, too, which are cheaper for more cores.
scarface74 8y ago
I think the interest in PCs grew, especially amongst the younger generation. With the new budget CPUs offering real good performance (a 8th gen i3 can offer approximately the same performance as a 7th gen i5), you can get much higher performance for your money than laptops. The price gap is much more evident when it comes to gaming. The growth in the PC market had nothing to do with the consumer market. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/pc-market-appears-to-have-grown-for-the-first-time-since-2012/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/pc-market-appears-to... Gartner reports that the growth was driven by increased business sales and that consumer shipments declined. IDC similarly pointed to the "business-driven refresh cycle" as a reason for the increase. This mirrors Microsoft's financial reporting; the software giant distinguishes between business and consumer sales of Windows and Office, and the general pattern over the last few quarters is that business sales have been robust even as consumer demand continues to soften. Enterprises are migrating to Windows 10, and they're buying new hardware to do so.

codingdave 8y ago

From the source article linked in the first paragraph: "PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment”