PC sales Suffer Biggest Slump in years

[Anabran]

See it here

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/resea...indows-8-flops

There will Always be a need for powerful workstations in research ,Management of huge Data sets and CG( movie Effects,Design etc.)

But the casual consumer seems to be losing interest in Full work stations.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Not surprising. Tablets are making huge inroads, Windows 8? Why bother?

[frahse]

The "workstation" was always oversold.
The most complicated thing most people do is use their computers to fill out their taxes. (Have you finished yours?)

Tablets and smartphones are mainly used for entertainment and gossip.

For power (not just video watching) users, a keyboard and mouse are still preferred.

[BeccaPrice]

Am I alone in not liking tablets? or maybe I just haven't met a good one - the only one I've used much is the iPad 1, and I find it too heavy and awkward-shaped to use for long.

Where I used to work, I had a laptop slaved to a larger monitor. That worked well, and I could detach the laptop for traveling. I wouldn't like that setup for my home office, though, because there's no extra room on the desk for the laptop, unless I put it under the monitor, which I suspect wouldn't be a good idea.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

Am I alone in not liking tablets? or maybe I just haven't met a good one - the only one I've used much is the iPad 1, and I find it too heavy and awkward-shaped to use for long.

Depends what you're doing and where. In some cases I find my iPad much more convenient to use than my laptop, in others the laptop wins hands down.

For computer users who really only ever used to browse the web and check their email, laptops, tablets and even phones have probably replaced the need for a desktop. Guessing, but I'd imagine the number of users who do that outweighs those of us who use computers for more demanding tasks where a desktop becomes useful. In which case, sales slumps are not really a surprise, assuming there's been a similar uptake in tablets, phones, laptops. Either that or with purse strings pulled tight, people are seeing their few year old computers as still perfectly fine for browsing/email.

[Anabran]

"Tablets and smartphones are mainly used for entertainment and gossip."

Agreed which Why most casual users are abandoning full workstations that are designed to do "real work" like Video editing or handling huge photoshop files
My little first gen kindle fire effectively grounded my Macbook ,supplanting it as my mobile/email web entertainment device.. no more toting a backpack/carrying bag every where .






Cheers

[BeccaPrice]

I do heavy word processing and formatting, so even a tablet with a keyboard won't do for me - the tablet keyboards I've seen are too small to be very usable for a touch typist.

If I traveled more, I can see that a tablet would be easier to carry than even my small netbook (and you don't have to take tablets out of the case and run them through TSA separately, like you do even small computers).

I talked to one person at the airport who had an iPad and had all sorts of business and presentation apps on hers - I guess you have to use some sort of adapter to hook it up to a computer projector though, since iPads don't have usb ports.

-Becca, who currently has 5 USB thumb drives on her desk, that she uses for various backups.

[faithbw]

Since I'm still in school, I need a laptop. I brought a gamer laptop a couple of years ago when I started. I had one computer course where I had to do excel spreadsheets, access databases and all types of other stuff with MS Office. There was no way I could do it with the tablets offered back then. Some of the Windows tablets currently offered might be able to do those tasks but even most tablets offered today cannot. Even for typing papers and looking at pdfs, I still prefer the laptop. However, most people probably never used their computers for more than checking their email, going on the Web, going on Facebook and watching the latest viral YouTube video. All of these can be easily done on a tablet. So the decline is understandable.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

Am I alone in not liking tablets? or maybe I just haven't met a good one - the only one I've used much is the iPad 1, and I find it too heavy and awkward-shaped to use for long.

Where I used to work, I had a laptop slaved to a larger monitor. That worked well, and I could detach the laptop for traveling. I wouldn't like that setup for my home office, though, because there's no extra room on the desk for the laptop, unless I put it under the monitor, which I suspect wouldn't be a good idea.

The office supply places will have a "holder" or support frame to raise the monitor up so that you can slide the laptop screen under it. These used to have to be sturdy and strong for the old giant CRT monitors, but with the LDC ones, there isn't much weight.

[usuallee]

My laptop PC isn't going anywhere. I'll probably get a new one in a couple years. I need the computing horsepower and hard drive storage to manage my media. That what I use it for mainly now - a place to store, manage, and sometimes play my music, videos, photos, other docs, and of course my Calibre collection. And most serious tasks online, like bill paying, emails, etc.
are still far easier with a keyboard and mouse. Tablets, phones, and ereaders are terrific for what they are, but I still need a PC as my computing hub.

I do think Windows 8 is a pretty good operating system. My wife has a Surface and loves it (she is very, very picky & returned a Google Chromebook).

[Anabran]

"My laptop PC isn't going anywhere. I'll probably get a new one in a couple years. I need the computing horsepower and hard drive storage to manage my media. That what I use it for mainly now - a place to store, manage, and sometimes play my music, videos, photos, other docs, and of course my Calibre collection. And most serious tasks are still far easier with a keyboard and mouse. Tablets, phones, and ereaders are terrific for what they are, but I still need a PC as my computing hub."

I am a 3D Animator & CG Design generalist

I will always need a "real" Computer for my work.

but for mobile Computing& consuming, tablets are king in my view
I can even Edit MS office docs that were created on my home system using quick office pro for android on my Kindle Fire.

[wizwor]

In other news, cathode ray tube sales continue to decline.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

I do heavy word processing and formatting, so even a tablet with a keyboard won't do for me - the tablet keyboards I've seen are too small to be very usable for a touch typist.

You can use a full sized bluetooth keyboard with a tablet.

I talked to one person at the airport who had an iPad and had all sorts of business and presentation apps on hers - I guess you have to use some sort of adapter to hook it up to a computer projector though, since iPads don't have usb ports.

There is a cable that plugs in to the charging port for an iPad that connects to projectors.



I used to have a desktop and a laptop. Now I have a laptop and a tablet. I still need a computer for some tasks, but the size and portability of a tablet makes it more convenient than the laptop for checking email or browsing the web. I agree with the comment in the other thread on this topic that tablets overlap with PCs and ignoring that makes data like this meaningless.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wizwor

In other news, cathode ray tube sales continue to decline.

say it isn't so?

[Anabran]

"tablets overlap with PCs and ignoring that makes data like this meaningless."

Not if you Make your money only selling PC's