7 ms·

It's not that people don't need a new PC because their old PC does just as good a job as it did 5 years ago. It's also not because your average mom and pop are

It's not that people don't need a new PC because their old PC does just as good a job as it did 5 years ago. It's also not because your average mom and pop are upgrading their own rigs themselves that new PC sales are slow. It's that when tablets hit the scene, people realized they don't need their PC for 90% of what they do on a "computer". Email, social networking, shopping, music, video etc. Us old geeks who swap hardware, play PC games, tweak OS settings and generally use yesterday's general purpose PC will be the ones remaining who keep buying new hardware and complete machines. The general public meanwhile will only buy a PC if their tablet/smartphone/phablet needs expand beyond those platforms. The market will shrink but it will turn more "pro". The quicker MS evolves into a modern IBM the better.

dublinben 13y ago
I think it's both. Most people are better served with a new, inexpensive tablet and their current computer than they would be with a new ultrabook.
efraim 13y ago
If 10 % of their needs aren't met by a tablet, they need something more that do, which is my problem with recommending a tablet over a PC. Sure, buy a tablet and use it 90 % of the time, but own a PC as well for when the tablet isn't enough.
marcosdumay 13y ago
> It's that when tablets hit the scene, people realized they don't need their PC for 90% of what they do on a "computer". That's exactly what I see everywhere. People still need a PC for the 10% of the tasks they can't do on a tablet. So, they'll keep a good enough PC around all the times. What is a different situation from a few years ago, when people were buying a PC for each family member. Now, it's a tablet for each person, a PC for each home, and spare space at the desks.
Xixi 13y ago
Replace 90% by 100%. The use case of the PC at home is disappearing fast. What can you do on a PC that you cannot do on a tablet? If you really think about it, not much at all. On the iPad Apple's creativity apps [1] go a long way: the basics for the amateur who wants to create content are covered. At home the only thing I actually need a "PC" for is to import CDs, I cannot think of anything else. The rest is a matter of taste, I personally prefer PCs (well, Macs) but I can definitely understand people preferring tablets, if only because they are so much cheaper, and generally so much easier to use (to my astonishment my daughter figured out how to use my iPad to watch videos on YouTube while she was still 0 years old, before she could even speak...). When it comes to work I need a computer. And event that might change in the future [2]. [1] http://www.apple.com/creativity-apps/ios/ http://www.apple.com/creativity-apps/ios/ [2] http://thebinaryapp.com/ http://thebinaryapp.com/
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  > What can you do on a PC that you cannot do on a tablet? Easy copy pasting, selecting specific parts of a document... basically anything requiring precision and speed. You can add a keyboard and a mouse to it I suppose, but at that point you may as well have got a laptop.
  - Xixi 13y ago
    That's just convenience. Do you really think many people will keep forking $X00 for PCs just for a little bit of convenience needed only once in a while? I respectfully disagree. A couple of anecdotes, for lack of evidence: My grandfather (89 years old today) switched to the iPad. He was one of the pioneer of computer usage in France (in the steal industry)... at a time when programs were punched on cards! He retired before the mouse/keyboard thingy became popular, and never quite managed to fully grasp it when he got a computer ten years ago. He is not switching back, the iPad is way easier for him. My parents went full iPad without knowing it: after getting one a year ago they realized that they just aren't using their laptops anymore. The iPad is just much nicer to browse the internet. In short the iPad is better for them 80% of the time, and worse 20% of the time. It can only get better with time, as we get better at making touch interfaces. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating anything, I just think that's where the market is heading, and it's not coming back to the PC world I (and probably you) grew up in. I for one will keep using my laptop... but I know I'm in the minority.
    - boomlinde 13y ago
      Well, that "bit of convenience" varies in size a lot over the market. If you intend to do any typing over a long period of time, using a tablet just isn't a good idea ergonomically. There are may other reasons to stick to a PC, but this one seems inherent to the tablet format, and once you add a keyboard and a cradle to position the tablet ergonomically, you've lost every advantage that using it might have had in the first place. So yes, I'd say that there's a large market of people who would rather shell out $X00 for a little bit of convenience rather than $Y00 for something that will be totally unfit for their application. "it's not coming back to the PC world I grew up in" is a truism, but no indicator of the future market shares of PCs and tablets. Also, is there any basis to the claim that you are in the minority?

dublinben 13y ago

I think it's both. Most people are better served with a new, inexpensive tablet and their current computer than they would be with a new ultrabook.

efraim 13y ago

If 10 % of their needs aren't met by a tablet, they need something more that do, which is my problem with recommending a tablet over a PC. Sure, buy a tablet and use it 90 % of the time, but own a PC as well for when the tablet isn't enough.

marcosdumay 13y ago

> It's that when tablets hit the scene, people realized they don't need their PC for 90% of what they do on a "computer". That's exactly what I see everywhere. People still need a PC for the 10% of the tasks they can't do on a tablet. So, they'll keep a good enough PC around all the times. What is a different situation from a few years ago, when people were buying a PC for each family member. Now, it's a tablet for each person, a PC for each home, and spare space at the desks.

Xixi 13y ago

Replace 90% by 100%. The use case of the PC at home is disappearing fast. What can you do on a PC that you cannot do on a tablet? If you really think about it, not much at all. On the iPad Apple's creativity apps [1] go a long way: the basics for the amateur who wants to create content are covered. At home the only thing I actually need a "PC" for is to import CDs, I cannot think of anything else. The rest is a matter of taste, I personally prefer PCs (well, Macs) but I can definitely understand people preferring tablets, if only because they are so much cheaper, and generally so much easier to use (to my astonishment my daughter figured out how to use my iPad to watch videos on YouTube while she was still 0 years old, before she could even speak...). When it comes to work I need a computer. And event that might change in the future [2]. [1] http://www.apple.com/creativity-apps/ios/ http://www.apple.com/creativity-apps/ios/ [2] http://thebinaryapp.com/ http://thebinaryapp.com/

6d0debc071 13y ago
> What can you do on a PC that you cannot do on a tablet? Easy copy pasting, selecting specific parts of a document... basically anything requiring precision and speed. You can add a keyboard and a mouse to it I suppose, but at that point you may as well have got a laptop.
- Xixi 13y ago
  That's just convenience. Do you really think many people will keep forking $X00 for PCs just for a little bit of convenience needed only once in a while? I respectfully disagree. A couple of anecdotes, for lack of evidence: My grandfather (89 years old today) switched to the iPad. He was one of the pioneer of computer usage in France (in the steal industry)... at a time when programs were punched on cards! He retired before the mouse/keyboard thingy became popular, and never quite managed to fully grasp it when he got a computer ten years ago. He is not switching back, the iPad is way easier for him. My parents went full iPad without knowing it: after getting one a year ago they realized that they just aren't using their laptops anymore. The iPad is just much nicer to browse the internet. In short the iPad is better for them 80% of the time, and worse 20% of the time. It can only get better with time, as we get better at making touch interfaces. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating anything, I just think that's where the market is heading, and it's not coming back to the PC world I (and probably you) grew up in. I for one will keep using my laptop... but I know I'm in the minority.
  - boomlinde 13y ago
    Well, that "bit of convenience" varies in size a lot over the market. If you intend to do any typing over a long period of time, using a tablet just isn't a good idea ergonomically. There are may other reasons to stick to a PC, but this one seems inherent to the tablet format, and once you add a keyboard and a cradle to position the tablet ergonomically, you've lost every advantage that using it might have had in the first place. So yes, I'd say that there's a large market of people who would rather shell out $X00 for a little bit of convenience rather than $Y00 for something that will be totally unfit for their application. "it's not coming back to the PC world I grew up in" is a truism, but no indicator of the future market shares of PCs and tablets. Also, is there any basis to the claim that you are in the minority?