# More on the future irrelevance of the desktop PC industry...



## Sasqui (Nov 16, 2012)

More on the future irrelevance of the desktop PC industry:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrog...vance-microsoft-tries-to-reinvent-everything/

This is particularly interesting, Gates was ahead of the game at one point:



> Bill Gates understood this moment was going to arrive before most people. In fact, he held up a prototype tablet at the now-defunct Comdex trade show back in 2001 and boldly proclaimed:  ”The tablet is a PC that is virtually without limits — and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”
> 
> Of course, that didn’t happen, but Microsoft was undaunted. The company was at it again before *Apple launched the gigantically successful iPad in 2010. Microsoft’s project, called Courier, was slated to ship before iPad and might have blunted Apple’s success. Instead, infighting at Microsoft led to delays and eventually to the cancellation of Courier. So instead of leading from the front, Microsoft now comes from behind with the Surface tablet, which launched to much fanfare October 25, to coincide with the debut of Windows 8*.



Article goes on about Win8 and the Microsoft "store".  Guessing the future, we all see where it's heading.

Another blurb about intel:



> But PC replacement cycles have been growing longer for quite awhile as *real-world performance improvements of Intel‘s chips has slowed*, the global economy has been beaten up more than once, and the marginal benefit of each upgrade cycle has gotten smaller compared to the prior one.


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## trickson (Nov 16, 2012)

Look all tech changes. But one thing will stay the same it is all tech not matter how you look at it.


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## Jack1n (Nov 16, 2012)

In the end all of it will be replaced with a tiny brain implant.


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## 3870x2 (Nov 16, 2012)

TPU needs to set up a fund to purchase intel's x86 fabrication division, so that we may continue our enthusiast desktops.

Is anyone here good at chip architecture?  We did have an AMD engineer a little while back, thats a start.


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## erixx (Nov 16, 2012)

Did anyone seriously believe that sales figures would just remain the same, the product basically the same, and the world basically the same to happily continue milking the same old cows???????


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## trickson (Nov 16, 2012)

Jack1n said:


> In the end all of it will be replaced with a tiny brain implant.



Yep. It is just the way things are. You can see it in every thing in life. We went from huge gas guzzling cars to small little things that are very fuel efficient. From tube radios to transistors, The list is endless and as tech matures it will get smaller faster and more efficient.  
There will be a time soon where the entire power of the desktop computer is nothing more than an implant that connects us all to a nexus hub.


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## SaltyFish (Nov 16, 2012)

erixx said:


> Did anyone seriously believe that sales figures would just remain the same, the product basically the same, and the world basically the same to happily continue milking the same old cows???????



Hmm... 1080p and 1366x768?

Tell me how that's working out for the display industry...


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## Sasqui (Nov 16, 2012)

SaltyFish said:


> Hmm... 1080p and 1366x768?
> 
> Tell me how that's working out for the display industry...



Quite well.  The sell more tablet and smartphone screens and everyone still has 5 TV sets ...not counting computer monitors, lol.

Really though, I still have a DroidX, and have never used the HDMI output on it.  Now if I had a tablet, it may be a different story.  A tablet with wireless HDMI connection to my TV?  I'd be all over it I think.


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## Batou1986 (Nov 16, 2012)

IMO the reason pc sales have slumped is because of the fact the average pc made in the last 2 years is more then capable of quickly performing 90% of what the average user does on a daily basis.

There is no need for anyone besides enthusiasts to buy new top of the line hardware, until software starts to advance, this is also why there have been such gains in the ultrabook / laptop segment as there power/portability factor is making desktops obsolete.


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## Frick (Nov 16, 2012)

Batou1986 said:


> IMO the reason pc sales have slumped is because of the fact the average pc made in the last 2 years is more then capable of quickly performing 90% of what the average user does on a daily basis.



More like 5 years. C2D's/Q's are still pretty popular and they still provide most users with more power they will ever need.


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## Sasqui (Nov 16, 2012)

Frick said:


> More like 5 years. C2D's/Q's are still pretty popular and they still provide most users with more power they will ever need.



Agreed.  Look at my sys specs, and I have a second C2D rig as well.  I just bought IB hardware for an upgrade and still asking myself why... but the answer is clear:  I love building and overclocking PC's!!!


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## Drone (Nov 16, 2012)

Eventually everything gets smaller. Megalodons, sabre-toothed cats, mammoths and now computers. 

Unfortunately this is not applicable to human stupidity. It only grows bigger.


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## 3870x2 (Nov 16, 2012)

Drone said:


> Eventually everything gets smaller. Megalodons, sabre-toothed cats, mammoths and now computers.
> 
> Unfortunately this is not applicable to human stupidity. It only grows bigger.



You just have to say it right: Intelligence gets smaller.


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## remixedcat (Nov 16, 2012)

I am going to be building my last desktop pc for quite some time here's the specs:
 ASRock Z77 Pro3 1155 ATX Intel Motherboard 
 Antec High Current Gamer 620 Watt ATX Modular Power Supply 
 Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor 
 EVGA 01G-P4-3652-KR NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card 
 Corsair XMS3 Series 16GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL 11 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 8GB Memory Modules) 
 Samsung 840-Series MZ-7TD120BW 120GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

and I should be set for a while...


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## qubit (Nov 16, 2012)

An irrelevant desktop PC = depressing.


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## erocker (Nov 16, 2012)

Analysts, journalists, whoever can say what they want. I'm not going to think about it until I can no longer go to Newegg and purchase desktop computer components. There seems to be two different realities in the world... What people say and what is actually happening.


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## cadaveca (Nov 16, 2012)

erocker said:


> Analysts, journalists, whoever can say what they want. I'm not going to think about it until I can no longer go to Newegg and purchase desktop computer components. There seems to be two different realities in the world... What people say and what is actually happening.



I hear from these news items recently "I dunno what to do with my PC", not that things are changing.

User mindset is crucially important, so although topic this may not have much merit right now, the fact people even feel that way, whether they represent the actual general public or not, is quite interesting.


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## The Jedi (Nov 16, 2012)

trickson said:


> There will be a time soon where the entire power of the desktop computer is nothing more than an implant that connects us all to a nexus hub.



I think radiation from the frequencies used in cellular radios would prevent that.  You hear this controversy about how "no cell phones DON'T cause brain tumors" oh but BE SURE TO WEAR A HEADSET they say to limit the radiation exposure.  And you see a headline every so many years about cell phones and radiation measurement and so-on, and how no, we still haven't PROVEN they cause tumors, etc., etc.  In reality, a radio transceiver probably ain't a good idea to have surgically implanted into your head.

Like personally I'm sure to have a straight line of space between my Bluetooth headset and my cell phone.  I've gotten headaches before and I stopped and looked, and one example: I was sitting in the middle of two cordless phones, one being in the other room just through the doorway out of sight.  So it was a radio wave going through my head causing the headache.  Now I set my cell phone pretty far away in the room after diagnosing that it might have been causing headaches.

Then there's the problem of having a foreign body like a bullet slug or shrapnel in your system.  Maybe it stays there and causes health problems, maybe your body dissolves it into its system.  Now that I think about it other stuff like that birth control implant for women is safe.

But in the latest episodes of Fringe the heroes figured out that the alien invaders have a brain implant technology that lets them do so much, so it still makes for some cool sci-fi.


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## bostonbuddy (Nov 17, 2012)

I wonder if there will be ocular implants or if tech will go straight to brain implants.
Some kind of ocular implant to provide a hud along w/ an interface device, or implants in the hands would provide a rich interface w/o the need for direct brain implantation.  Altho wouldn't be able to do cool things like memory/brain function alteration.


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## Heldelance (Dec 6, 2012)

Hopefully it turns out something like the Conjoiners in Alastair Reynold's books. But without the singularity thing. Being linked in with everyone would just cheese me off.


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