Will the Recession Lead to the Death of Desktop PCs?
Posted 09/08/09 at 07:27:04 PM by Ryan Whitwam
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The recession may be coming to an end, but desktop PC sales may never get back to where they were, according to Ray Chen of Compal Electronics. The company expects to see a 20 percent and 10 percent rise in PC shipments, in the third and fourth quarters respectively. Notebook sales remained strong throughout the recession. This may mean that notebook sales will only continue to grow, as desktop sales remain comparatively stagnant.
Even Apple, whose sales have remained strong, saw a 20 percent decline in desktop sales volume. Some questions remain as businesses may have been holding off on new PC orders during the recession. The corporate world has traditionally chosen desktops over laptops. However, Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli, contends that businesses will choose mobility over performance as they place new orders.
There will always be a
Submitted by Jox on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 2:30pm
There will always be a desktop PC in my home. I wonder if the people who claim desktops are a dying breed are taking me into account? I don't purchase prefabs. If a Dell or HP machine ever enters my house it'll be because some member of my extended family has asked me to fix it for them. I build all my machines (as I'm sure do most MPC readers). Are our purchases being counted, or only the garbage sold at Best Buy and the like?
Unless you got an excellent deal on a clearance item (purchased for the kids, or an elderly parent), there's little reason to buy a prefab PC.
-Jox
desktop is already dead.
Submitted by Sina on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 7:16am
desktop is already dead.
desktops go bye bye?? i say no way jose!!!
Submitted by pcmaximus on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 10:01pm
the desktop computer will never die.
i am sick of hearing all this negative talk about the pc.
since the beginning of pc's and mac's, i've been a loyal user gaming and doing everything and anything with them.
i for one will continue to support pc's, mac's and everything they represent to the best of my ability.
the consoles feel kiddy like to me, never cared for them...a friend of mine does but they make me yawn, boring.
they didnt says PC is dead
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 8:16am
they didnt says PC is dead they said those honkin' Desktop towers were.
Learn to Read
as a side note considerion what most bunisses need now a laptop could work well and lends portability. The only problem might be screen size but you can get a external for that. Heck you could set up several notbotts in "lid closed doesn nothing mode" line them up on a book shelve and with soem creative wiring give everyone in the office a monitory and keyboard while the "server cluster" is on a book shelf
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Desk top PC
Submitted by MeTo on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 9:53pm
For me it's simple i like to go to the store buy a game bring it home install and play. Now with game makers paranoia (of pirates) they only want to have digital downloads of games or games that stream from there servers. I will have nothing to do with that and so i don't need that new fast computer. My old machine works fine for internet,open office,Audacity,FreeRip,DVD player and what ever. The only reason i needed to buy new computer's was to keep up with the new games if i don't buy new games i don't need new computer.
Good luck when new OSs come out...
Submitted by Devo85x on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 4:23am
Remember when Bill Gates said "640k is all anyone will ever need"... you have to admit you sound a little like that right now...
Submitted by MeTo on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 7:05am
I use to buy a new PC every 2 or 3 years for playing games. If i dont play games i can go 8 to 10 years without buying a computer thus reducing PC sales. I am sure there are plenty people out there just like me. I was talking to a coworker the other day about replacing his PC that came with and still had Win98.
Submitted by mattman059 on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 7:38pm
If the desktop (and its components) (and that is a strong IF) do drop significantly in popularity and become seemingly irrelevant i would be really happy..and so would any hardcore gamer, i mean think about it....cheaper parts, better hardware, new games....add it up and you've got a recipe for awesomeness.
Submitted by Devo85x on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 4:22am
If desktops die out, in 10 years you will still be looking for the desktop hardware we use today, say goodbye to 3 or 4 way sli support in games... if you go over the 2 GPUs that the laptop can hold, your screwed, and dont even get me started on future hardware support in OS and Games...
Submitted by Devo85x on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 4:21am
If desktops die out, in 10 years you will still be looking for the desktop hardware we use today, say goodbye to 3 or 4 way sli support in games... if you go over the 2 GPUs that the laptop can hold, your screwed, and dont even get me started on future hardware support in OS and Games...
true, but if they don't have
Submitted by bigassmangina on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 9:31pm
true, but if they don't have money comming in then that means less money for R&D. then that means longer wait for worse shit then whats out now!
This is MaxPC...
Submitted by 1337Goose on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 7:37pm
This is MaxPC, we all know that we're going to build desktops 'till the bitter end. However, the argument does have some merit. Desktops will likely never die 100%, but I can certainly see laptops taking up a larger share of the market in the near future.
Laptops continue to make strides in the categories of price, battery life, and weight (mobility). Think about it, 8 or 9 years ago, a laptop computer was totally incapable of even the most basic computing chores. In contrast, modern laptops are much more able. It's sometimes hard for us hard cores users to see what the average users sees. Average users generally ask questions like "Can I surf and use Microsoft Office on it?" or "Can I lug it around wherever I go?".
~Goose
No, the desktop computer
Submitted by n0ctis on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 6:50pm
No, the desktop computer will not die out. How it interfaces with our ever-evolving mobile gadgets will change and, hopefully, improve; but, the desktop PC will not cease.
It seems to be a hack topic to cover (and many have, over the years) and I am disappointed to see it here.
________________________________________________________________
.: vires et honos :.
Submitted by lhatten on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 6:20pm
This reminds me of the argument that because we have bicycles, cars are doomed.
The gadgets we use now to access the internet are good for accessing email, and some limited surfing of the internet. They are useless doing any kind of real work. The industry I work in is software design & test. The one thing we are always complaining about is not enough power & the displays are too small. Our current minimum screen size is 24 inch, and I could use a 27 inch.
Also, laptops work great for taking on a trip, but even with a docking station, it doesn't take long for the latest & greatest laptop to become too slow. With a laptop the most you can do is increase the Hard disk size and add some RAM. You best not wait too long to buy it or there will be none that will fit your "old" laptop.
Even with the price of LCDs dropping, desktops with decent size monitors are way cheaper than an equivalent laptop.
Don't get me started about gaming!
not going anywhere
Submitted by Gailim on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 6:14pm
as long a people need powerful/cheap computers, desktops aren't going anywhere
"However, Matthew Wilkins,
Submitted by I Jedi on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 5:57pm
"However, Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli, contends that
businesses will choose mobility over performance as they place new
orders."- So, in other words, he's saying that when companies place new orders in the coming months and years, they'll choose mobility over performance/productivity?
Long Live the Desktop
Submitted by nsvander on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 5:16pm
I have a desktop, and a laptop, sure the laptop is nice, its portable, and I can browse the web from the couch, but it cannot do the things that my desktop can. I cannot game with all the eye candy on a 30" screen, with out a major performance hit, it only has room for one optical drive, so coping from disk to disk is not possible unless I use an external usb. Having a couple of terabytes of storage is not cheap or possible right now on a laptop.
Well most apps are still
Submitted by erks on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 5:08pm
Well most apps are still single threaded today, like Microsoft Word. Who needs i7's 4 (or 8!!! with HT) cores? A single core or and old dual core easily run Word and Firefox.
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