[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

not with me. i still completely fail to see the point of tablets.

They have their uses. One of them is that they're usually smaller, handier and turn on faster. And thus are handy when you're sitting on the couch and want to check something. (talking about private use only!)

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I will. I can't see myself doing dedicated gaming on a touch-screen only device. Strategy games are one thing, because there isn't really a need for intricate controls, and they're often times turn-based.

For me, a twitch-shooter NEEDS a mouse and keyboard control set-up and my hack-n-slash types need to put a controller in my hands. I also can't really, in good faith, attempt to play some games (like Mario and Wii sports) with my 4-year-old with a tablet. I know that you're talking some years in the future, but I really don't think that PC and console gaming are going to be going anywhere aside from straight digital distribution and ticking off a lot of gamers who enjoy some type of physical medium.

I'd love Civ for Android!

Originally Posted by petermillard

Another reason for the decline in PC sales/shipments could be that people are just hanging onto them longer - you need to be a pretty hard-core gamer to justify upgrading your PC annually these days, and for most people's relatively modest usage most PCs are far and away more than 'good enough'. So by that logic, if you already have a 'good enough' PC or laptop, why upgrade it just because it's a couple of years old? Why not try a tablet instead and see what the fuss is about?

I think this scenario is one that's being repeated in many households, across many countries - doesn't mean that PC sales are going away, but they're definitely being spread out over longer periods.

Cheers, Pete.

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I very much doubt it. I think tablets are sold more than a year ago, but that is not causing the PC market to fall. I don't think the number of tablets is high enough for that and don't forget, for most things tablets just won't suffice.
It is my opinion, that users tend to longer use their PC because the big speed improvements in user experience which you had in the earlier years are becoming less and less. There is basically less reason to upgrade.
Most users still use windows and both releases 7 and Vista have the same system requirements. On Linux it is even easier to work with 'older' hardware.

I think both of these three statements have truths. I do think that gaming has something to do with the decline of laptop sales and increase of tablets. But not for the gamer. But rather for the casual gamer (example: my mother. She playes mostly bejeweled on her smartphone and some scrabble game with my brother). But the real gamer wouldn't even think about exchanging his/her game pc (or laptop) with a tablet.

But we're also in a recession (it waxes and wanes, but we've been in a recession for some time already). Do you really think people will buy new PC's while the older one is still good enough? Especially as the speed difference is not really noticeable for the average user. And as they don't have a tablet yet, and tablets are the hype of today, they'll buy a tablet instead.