Posted on 04/12/2013 8:09:38 AM PDT by null and void
In another sign of the worldwide shift in preferred personal devices, PC shipments posted the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, according to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker (IDC).
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, down -13.9 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012 and worse than the forecast decline of -7.7 percent, according to the IDC. Despite some mild improvements in the economic environment, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago, marking the worst quarter reported since IDC began tracking the PC market in 1994. The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines.
The reduction in shipments isn’t entirely shocking, given the obvious cannibalization from tablets and smartphones. Smartphones shipments are expected to continue their historic rise at a rate of 24 percent CAGR from 2011 to 2016, according to Andy Oberst, Strategic Vice President of Qualcomm, and PC makers are collectively bracing for the change, as other indicators have risen throughout the past year. DRAM content growth is reported slowing, as slim notebooks have limited space for it, and tablets and smartphones have no use for it at all. Instead, its low-power variant, mobile DRAM, is seeing an increase. Additionally, the chip market outlook was downgraded in 2012, with the weak PC market mostly to blame.
"Although the reduction in shipments was not a surprise, the magnitude of the contraction is both surprising and worrisome," said David Daoud, IDC Research Director, Personal Computing. "The industry is going through a critical crossroads, and strategic choices will have to be made as to how to compete with the proliferation of alternative devices and remain relevant to the consumer. Vendors will have to revisit their organizational structures and go to market strategies, as well as their supply chain, distribution, and product portfolios in the face of shrinking demand and looming consolidation."
PC makers had pinned their hopes on the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS, which is a complete overhaul of the operating system with touch-screen capabilities. Unfortunately, these new shipment trends are indicating that the upgraded operating system has not had the desired effect on consumers.
Bob O’Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, believes it is clear that Windows 8 not only failed to provide a positive boost, but also appears to have slowed the market.
"While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices,” said O’Donnell. “Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market."
Microsoft, at least in public, does not appear to be on the verge of making tough decisions at the moment, however. A Microsoft spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that, along with their partners, they planned “to continue to bring even more innovation to market across tablets and PCs.”
No, No. I do not need a mobile device OS for my stationary desktop.
I realize that there are downloads to change this, but I am not going to support such obnoxious stupidity.
They will have to be satisfied with the Windows 7 I bought.
Blue screen of death....machine re-boots....machine freezes.....networking suddenly fails...
And I’ve was in the business for 30 years with networking credentials.
I blame Windows 8.
Tablets are PCs, and many have more capabilities than many desktops had only a few years back. Some percentage of PC users will move to tablet PCs, then a point will be reached where the much smaller screen sizes and other factors will cause many users to stick with desktops for the long term.
Desktops, laptops, notebook PCs and tablets serve mostly the same functions. Smartphones are something new, but it remains to be seen how many will use them as their only computer platform.
A touch screen oriented interface for a desktop machine I plan to use for gaming & internet access with a large monitor that I sit back from in a comfortable chair is the last thing I want, and the legacy desktop option or whatever they're calling it sounds like a kludge. I'll wait for Windows 9 or a new Windows 8 SP update, when they hopefully provide a decent user interface alternative as a built-in option, and get rid of those stupid default UI chiclet things designed for touch devices rather than desktops.
I purchased two HP 23 inch touch screens with Windows 8. They replaced one 8 year old XP Dell and one 6 year old XP Dell.
We love the new HPs. As for Win 8, excuse me but there is so much BS about Win 8. I will take it over Win XP any time.
Everything about these desk top PCs is amazing. For us, we want big screen desk top PCs for use at home, and tablets for use while away from home. We would never consider substituting a tablet for a desk top PC, especially when it comes to using Microsoft Word and Excel.
We do same with older cpu’s etc ...... Took an old HP laptop, replaced the HD with a SSD and loaded Peppermint 3 on it.... Screaming fast net surfing tool !
.... Old hardware isn’t bad if ya change its diaper once in a while .....:o)
Microsoft has done themselves and the PC industry a horrible disservice. Let’s say:
50% (high in my opinion) of the people in the market for a PC get a Windows 8 machine and like it,
40% of them get a Windows 8 machine and don’t like it (my situation), while
10% of them delay getting a new PC because they’ve heard bad reviews/experience concerning Windows 8, and almost
0% upgrade early to get a Windows 8 machine.
Where does that leave Microsoft?
Do they really expect to get enough revenue from their Windows 8 app store to make up for this?
What do you mean by "once in a great while. My computer generally runs from one kernel upgrade to the next (5-6 months, if not longer. Now that I'm EOL on the version of Fedora I'm running, I don't expect to have to reboot until I decide to upgrade to the next level, or I lose power for more than 30 minutes. I fully expect, absent something external (like extended power loss), for my desktop to run for a year or more without issues. I've had workstations go that long without issues that were acting not only as my primary desktop, but as serious batch processors for data reporting and management that have gone that long before I ended up rebooting due to a move or something similar.
I really don't expect my desktop to fail absent actual hardware or power failure.
It is extraordinarily rare for even what appears to be a "freeze" to actually be a halt if you have decent hardware. I can recover from just about anything without rebooting, and actually had more than a thousand days of uptime on my main desktop at work before it was killed during a power outage when the UPS failed.
While not a desktop, I've had AIX servers with more than 6 years of uptime.
Despite what microsoft and their supporters will try to tell you, It is not normal to have a computer need to be rebooted for just about anything short of kernel upgrades, and there are even ways to upgrade the kernel on the fly these days.
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