I have a theory that one of the things hurting the PC industry is the availability of cheap, easy, external storage. There was a time only a few years ago when

I have a theory that one of the things hurting the PC industry is the availability of cheap, easy, external storage. There was a time only a few years ago when the average mainstream PC user who is scared to open their computer had basically no options for expanding storage. They would just go buy a new PC every few years and get a bigger HD included. Today you spend $99, plug-in a cable, and you're all set. The bigger issue though is there's no new technologies out there driving hardware sales. Arguably things like USB2, CD/DVD burners, decent sized LCD displays, etc were big practical things that could drive a customer to go buy a new computer. What do we have today? BluRay? 802.11N? Not good enough for the mainstream. USB3 could be an important technology to drive hardware sales but we're probably still a few years away from seeing its real impact.