Wednesday, January 9th 2013
2013 Could be a Difficult Year for the PC Industry: Analyst
Big tradeshows such as the International CES are often used as a benchmark to gauge which areas of consumer-technology are faring better than the other. Industry analyst DigiTimes observed that PC is riding the CES bus on an uncomfortable backseat, which is an indication that the year could be difficult for the PC industry in general.
According to the analyst, although PC makers are aggressively promoting their Windows 8 creations - notebooks, desktops, and dockable tablets, - TV, living-room web-enablement, is attracting the most attention. Why this spells a bad news to PC makers is that with web-browsing being the most popular PC usage activity, no longer needing a PC, and doing so on web-enabled TVs could pose a disruptive innovation for the PC. Also, the theme for 2013, with PC makers appears to be more of cutting prices, instead of new innovations.
Source:
DigiTimes
According to the analyst, although PC makers are aggressively promoting their Windows 8 creations - notebooks, desktops, and dockable tablets, - TV, living-room web-enablement, is attracting the most attention. Why this spells a bad news to PC makers is that with web-browsing being the most popular PC usage activity, no longer needing a PC, and doing so on web-enabled TVs could pose a disruptive innovation for the PC. Also, the theme for 2013, with PC makers appears to be more of cutting prices, instead of new innovations.
71 Comments on 2013 Could be a Difficult Year for the PC Industry: Analyst
People look at me funny when I tell them that I turned down that opportunity, but sometimes family really is that important.
Media and Propaganda. In the end the modular and component level design of PC's will not be replaced by an all-in-one-unit like a Tablet.
Steams "Piston" is a modular PC that did receive coverage because it's from a very Media Popular game developer and is a cool looking package.
While tablets and mobile device sales are going through the roof, the PC will remain the stoic member of many households for a long, long time. People and analysts can pontificate on the demise of PCs all they want, but there is still a huge demand for them, even if that has slowed in the marketplace.
There are still a lot of people who want a keyboard, mouse, a nice monitor and the versatility that a PC gives them that other devices cannot.
Just my 2 cents.
There are people with 4-5 year old hardware that's still gloatworthy.... that tells yah somethin.... Never ever thought it would come to that.
Hell I have lots of people every day that tell me my system is overkill. IDC LOL.
If I had a $1. for every person who bought a house at $100+K a few years back that has the same house worth about $60K now, I be a multi-millionaire. The media spins the B.S. they are spoon fed by the clowns in DC as if it were actually true, when anyone with an economic clue knows the claims don't match reality when you see people still losing their jobs, homes, retirement, etc.
While there may be some shift in consumer preference in PC hardware, the main problem is unemployment. Those with a secure, decent income are still buying cars, new homes, cellphones, etc. but there are many millions of people who are lucky to just buy food and hopefully pay the rent or mortgage.
However, outside of office use, there are undeniable signs that the market is changing, and really, if you didn't expect this, you need to examine the writing on the wall a bit closer.
Most people's computing needs are managed by their smartphones.
I used to be able to sell about 100 plain $1000 PCs, with large storage and little GPU power, every year. Boxes to surf the internet, maybe manage some pictures or music...whatever.
You can get the same thing now for $250 out of a tablet.
How do you sell people things for 4x as much, when really, that increased cost offers so little?
The economy isn't hurting because people aren't working. The sales of PC haven't declined because of a HDD shortage, although many an executive would like to tell you so.
The truth of the matter is that people's needs are met with other items, but sales people are still selling the same old things. Of course some sales guys are screaming that the sky is falling. They're still stuck in 2008!
:roll:
The gov officials gave themselves a 60k-a-year raise instead. :p
It seems many businesses are looking for immediate savings, and if the cost of a new purchase doesn't show real benefit within 12 months, forget about trying to sell it to them.
EDIT: And if you use the word "reality" I will smack you in the head.