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Looking at Dell's price for the last 10 years (http://yhoo.it/fCdFBo http://yhoo.it/fCdFBo), that doesn't seem to be a great business to be in. The upgrade cycl

Looking at Dell's price for the last 10 years (http://yhoo.it/fCdFBo http://yhoo.it/fCdFBo), that doesn't seem to be a great business to be in. The upgrade cycle is slowing, margins are falling and the mainstream consumer just don't care much about the "latest and greatest" any more when it comes to computers. The reality is that for most users (non-gamers) the power of computers long ago exceeded what they need. Does is really matter if a computer is 3X or 10X faster than you need? This is a classic market transition where once performance hits some level, other product attributes become important to consumers because they no longer see any material benefit from marginal performance increases. If you're mostly using your computer to check email and facebook, you don't need a quad core. (This applies to even fairly tech-heavy folks - I used to replace my desktop like clockwork every two years for almost 15 years, but I'm typing on this on a 4+-year-old MacBook black that's still plenty fast for coding, image processing and web browsing. I expect I'll use it at least another year and I only paid $1500 for it to start with. I'll prob replace it with a 13" MacBook Air, which won't be much of a performance bump - it will be a form factor bump.) I remember the days when it was all about having the 386/33 or whatever the latest top-of-the-line Mhz was. Now I doubt if you asked most folks, they could even tell you how fast the processor is in their system. It just doesn't matter much any more, same as only car folks really care what BHP their engine delivers these days.

recoiledsnake 16y ago
So in 10 years, when everyone has speedy tablets (and PCs?), won't the same thing happen?
- jarek 16y ago
  Not to worry, Apple will be selling post-tablet devices by then.
- tomkarlo 16y ago
  No... if performance is already sufficient for most tablet users (and I'd argue it is - as an iPad owner I have my complaints but "it's too slow" it's really high on the list) then you won't see this happen. It will be some other product feature, like weight, or battery life, or cost, that will be the axis that you see competition focused on. Marketing folks would love to have consumer focus on a metrics like performance that constantly keeps growing and outdating old products. Other metrics, like price and customer experience, are often just as important to buyers. To give a parallel example, I don't think most HDTV owners are going to replace their set at this point for higher resolution. If you have 720 you probably don't care all that much about 1080 unless you're an AV geek. So that market is now competing on two other axes: cost (how cheap can you get it for a given size) and they're also pushing 3D.
jodrellblank 16y ago
If you're mostly using your computer to check email and facebook, you don't need a quad core. I think there's a lot of unfulfilled potential here, and I'm really glad the emerging tablet space is exploring GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, touch sensors, light sensors, Apple is pushing FaceTime, Android and iOS are getting augmented reality apps, etc.

recoiledsnake 16y ago

So in 10 years, when everyone has speedy tablets (and PCs?), won't the same thing happen?

jarek 16y ago
Not to worry, Apple will be selling post-tablet devices by then.
tomkarlo 16y ago
No... if performance is already sufficient for most tablet users (and I'd argue it is - as an iPad owner I have my complaints but "it's too slow" it's really high on the list) then you won't see this happen. It will be some other product feature, like weight, or battery life, or cost, that will be the axis that you see competition focused on. Marketing folks would love to have consumer focus on a metrics like performance that constantly keeps growing and outdating old products. Other metrics, like price and customer experience, are often just as important to buyers. To give a parallel example, I don't think most HDTV owners are going to replace their set at this point for higher resolution. If you have 720 you probably don't care all that much about 1080 unless you're an AV geek. So that market is now competing on two other axes: cost (how cheap can you get it for a given size) and they're also pushing 3D.

jodrellblank 16y ago

If you're mostly using your computer to check email and facebook, you don't need a quad core. I think there's a lot of unfulfilled potential here, and I'm really glad the emerging tablet space is exploring GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, touch sensors, light sensors, Apple is pushing FaceTime, Android and iOS are getting augmented reality apps, etc.