PC sales are dropping massively? Are we concerned?

[mr moose]

Well I see it that yes PC sales are declining but our sector of the industry isn't. There will always be room in an industry for the cutting edge consumer technology. Besides we aren;t going to be affected overnight.

correct, consumer parts market will not be effected by this at all, the only thing that will effect the sales of parts would be if all the gamers switched to console. (yeah, right :lol: )

 

It's more likely that laptops are being replaced with tablets in both the business and domestic markets causing these figures to look as bad as they do.  Having said that they also expect windows to improve next year with laptop/tablet hybrids.

[OddlyShapedTree]

correct, consumer parts market will not be effected by this at all, the only thing that will effect the sales of parts would be if all the gamers switched to console. (yeah, right :lol: )

 

It's more likely that laptops are being replaced with tablets in both the business and domestic markets causing these figures to look as bad as they do.  Having said that they also expect windows to improve next year with laptop/tablet hybrids.

Yes, exactly. There is no reason for my mom and dad to buy a PC that will force them to stay in one place so they can read articles and check their email. PC sales are going down but internet activity is on the rise. The bigger industry continues to thrive.

[Guest]

^^^ @ OP Those reports don't factor in individual hardware purchases like GPU's, CPU's, Motherboards etc.. only those terrible OEM boxes like Chondo said there's nothing to worry about.

wtf is with your profile pic?

[aithos]

Just get a console... The PC community isn't large enough. Sure I hop on the PC for singleplayer centred games like saints row GTA 4 skyrim or even cs go and l4d. But if I want to have fun, like make new friends or laugh my ass off i'll hop on to xbox live. Its just the way things are.

 

There are far less people playing console games online than on PC.  I mean sure, there might be more people playing specific titles (CoD) on consoles, but as a whole the PC gaming community is significantly larger.  You can't even compare the two globally it's so lopsided.  For FPS on the PC you have CoD, CS:GO and Battlefield as big titles, for RTS there isn't even a console equivalent to SCII, same with MMORPGS and MOBA's (WoW and LoL/DoTA respectively).  The PC gaming community is still a far larger presence at any given moment than XB Live...and it's free. 

 

If you want to pay to play games online, be my guest, I'll laugh at you and all the other people getting suckered into an inferior gaming experience with a low skill-cap control scheme

[SirReallySam]

The PC will never die. It will merely adapt.

indeed.

[aithos]

IDC use more information than that for these statistics, they follow online shopping trends, customs import reports and tax lodgement etc.  They compile and absolute ton of data from all sources to determine how many pcs are actually in use.

 

The IDC has also said that people spend more time on pc's than tablets, and while tablet sales are increasing and have an effect they are not the reason for the decline. More evidence of this is that the sales of portable computers suffered a much large drop in sales as compared to a desktop, thus insinuating that tablet sales are effecting laptop sales more than they are desktop.

 

It is also interesting to note that the sales of domestic pc's fell be 15% where as commercial sales only fell by 5% and the overall next year is expected to be lower again. 

 

They don't track parts.  It doesn't matter that PC sales fell because parts sales is still increasing...  PC sales has no correlation to number of PC users.  How many households do you know that have less than 1 computer?  How many have more than one?  How many have no consoles?  How many have more than one?

 

I can tell you right now that more households have no "recent" gaming console than a PC, I can also tell you confidently that more households have multiple PCs than have multiple gaming consoles.  PCs are an integral part of our lives, it doesn't matter if they all get used for gaming or not...

 

The only thing that's a trend is that pre-built, cheap, shitty computer sales are going down and have been for the past decade.  Tablets, laptops and custom machines are rising in sales because of convenience, accessibility and cost effectiveness.  Anyone who takes PC sales declining as a real sign of the health of the industry is naive.  Now is a better time than ever to be a PC owner...

[FireFox]

'Are we concerned?'  ----------> NOPE

The reason why the market is dropping is because a lot of PC's were being sold to people who aren't really bothered about PC's, those people are able to do all of their computing tasks with tablets and phones.

 

The people like us who geek over core counts or drooling over the GFLOPS the CPU or/and GPU is capable of performing at still buy computers and components regardless because we enjoy the components and not just the game playing and so on, I was reading something a little while ago about the enthusiast market and that is still growing.

 

I could be wrong but I don't think I am.

[mr moose]

They don't track parts.  It doesn't matter that PC sales fell because parts sales is still increasing...  PC sales has no correlation to number of PC users.  How many households do you know that have less than 1 computer?  How many have more than one?  How many have no consoles?  How many have more than one?

 

I can tell you right now that more households have no "recent" gaming console than a PC, I can also tell you confidently that more households have multiple PCs than have multiple gaming consoles.  PCs are an integral part of our lives, it doesn't matter if they all get used for gaming or not...

 

The only thing that's a trend is that pre-built, cheap, shitty computer sales are going down and have been for the past decade.  Tablets, laptops and custom machines are rising in sales because of convenience, accessibility and cost effectiveness.  Anyone who takes PC sales declining as a real sign of the health of the industry is naive.  Now is a better time than ever to be a PC owner...

Can you say that again?  because I have no idea what you are trying to say, It sounded like you said anyone who looks at the IDC figures as a sign of industry health is naive. Which is the silliest thing I have heard considering all the major players amd, intel, nvidia, corsair, you name it use the IDC data as a tool to monitor shifts in industry.

[aithos]

Can you say that again?  because I have no idea what you are trying to say, It sounded like you said anyone who looks at the IDC figures as a sign of industry health is naive. Which is the silliest thing I have heard considering all the major players amd, intel, nvidia, corsair, you name it use the IDC data as a tool to monitor shifts in industry.

 

I didn't say anything about IDC data, people are talking about "PC sales" like it's a sign of doom.  As if saturation of PCs isn't at an all time high.  Just because tablets and smart phones are picking up in sales doesn't make a statement about what people really care about (penetration or saturation).  What matters is this:  how many people have PCs in their home, how many PCs are there per home and when one is outdated will it be replaced?

 

The answers are:  a lot, usually more than one, and yes.  Not everyone cares to replace a PC every couple years, some people keep them a decade.  That doesn't mean the market is doomed, it means it's getting saturated and we will be at status quo until time or innovation force a new wave of purchases.  If you knew the first thing about market analysis you'd know that.  Year over year PC sales are down?  So what...

 

I take the long view, the long view is the home PC will never die.  It's too big a part of our culture...and guess what.. Tablets are PCs.  Technology is technology, CPUs are CPUs, this may be blasphemy..but consoles are PCs.  Keyboard and Mouse is still the most efficient means of communication and control, until something better comes along PCs as we know them will be fine.  When something does the market will shift, but PCs are here to stay no matter what.

 

The point I was trying to make is that it is stupid to sit back and talk about whether or not the PC is dying, it's not.  Are books dying because of kindle?  No.  Even if they eventually do get replaced...what is a kindle?  Its a damn book.  Just because it is digital and holds thousands of books at once doesn't change what it is...

[mr moose]

I didn't say anything about IDC data, people are talking about "PC sales" like it's a sign of doom.  As if saturation of PCs isn't at an all time high.  Just because tablets and smart phones are picking up in sales doesn't make a statement about what people really care about (penetration or saturation).  What matters is this:  how many people have PCs in their home, how many PCs are there per home and when one is outdated will it be replaced?

 

The answers are:  a lot, usually more than one, and yes.  Not everyone cares to replace a PC every couple years, some people keep them a decade.  That doesn't mean the market is doomed, it means it's getting saturated and we will be at status quo until time or innovation force a new wave of purchases.  If you knew the first thing about market analysis you'd know that.  Year over year PC sales are down?  So what...

I never said the market was doomed, I think you'd better read my post again.  I was talking exclusively to the IDC data and qualifying why pc sales statistics are down.  If anything I was pointing out that it is not a sign of doom for the industry* so I don't know why you are quoting me and then saying something that is either moot or not relevant to my post.

 

 

*particularly when I said this:

 

 

The IDC has also said that people spend more time on pc's than tablets, and while tablet sales are increasing and have an effect they are not the reason for the decline. More evidence of this is that the sales of portable computers suffered a much large drop in sales as compared to a desktop, thus insinuating that tablet sales are effecting laptop sales more than they are desktop.

 

 

To explain what this means, the IDC considers laptops as pc's for their pc totals, so when the laptop market is effected it is reflected in the total pc market statistics. Which is why desktop sales may not be as bad as it looks.

[juretrn]

PC is less and less mainstream...

Non-techies demand iPads.

[xox]

It's already almost dead. If it wasn't for heavy demand from industry, commerce and research facilities, the PC would be long gone. I think I know around 10 people that have desktops (excluding myself); However, I know about ten times that many with laptops.

[aithos]

I never said the market was doomed, I think you'd better read my post again.  I was talking exclusively to the IDC data and qualifying why pc sales statistics are down.  If anything I was pointing out that it is not a sign of doom for the industry* so I don't know why you are quoting me and then saying something that is either moot or not relevant to my post.

 

 

*particularly when I said this:

 

 

 

To explain what this means, the IDC considers laptops as pc's for their pc totals, so when the laptop market is effected it is reflected in the total pc market statistics. Which is why desktop sales may not be as bad as it looks.

 

You know, I think I misunderstood what the point of your post was.  I apologize for that...

 

I took the first part of your post as that you were commenting that the data shows that PC use is going down and so I was responding to that and not the rest of your post when I should have looked at it a second time to see what you really meant.

[mr moose]

You know, I think I misunderstood what the point of your post was.  I apologize for that...

no stress, it should be a simple topic but having several years experience as a statistical analysis I sometimes get too anal/pedantic and in depth for the forum.

[aithos]

no stress, it should be a simple topic but having several years experience as a statistical analysis I sometimes get too anal/pedantic and in depth for the forum.

 

I do that constantly in my areas of expertise so I understand, in this case I think the problem was more I was reading quickly and made an assumption I shouldn't have.  But I appreciate that you understand

[Harvey]

Such doom and gloom I'm sick of hearing about it. It isn't even the biggest decline in PC sales we've had in 2012 but it was the end of x86!. Piss off... For many years we've heard PC SALES ARE DOWN! Which was BS as they were going up year over year what was down was the percentage of growth.

 

I work in IT I consider myself a enthusiast but I'm still running an i7 930 with a GTX 470 and see no reason to upgrade. We aren't seeing the huge leaps in performance we once were. Most people just don't need it. They're more than happy with the system they bought several years ago. An if you throw an SSD in it, watch peoples eyes light up.

 

Most articles that spew complete horse shit about the end of the PC never actual mention numbers other that declines in growth percentages and word it as if actual sales have dropped. Last year is the first year in 12 years it's actually declined for realzies! But we've been hearing about the end of the PC for 10 years... Lets have a look at the numbers on wikipedia. 

 

Unit sales:

 

1999

Units (M) 113.5

Growth 21.7%

 

2000

Units (M) 134.7

Growth 14.5%

 

2001

Units (M) 128.1

Growth -4.6%

 

Lets skip ahead a bit.

 

2008

Units (M) 302.2

Growth 10.9%

 

2009

Units (M) 305.9

Growth 1.2%

 

2010

Units (M) 351

Growth 13.8%

 

2011

Units (M) 352.8

Growth 0.5%

 

2012

Units (M) 352.7

Growth -0.035%

 

OMG THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!11111

[UnderADyingSun]

How can you kill that which has no life?

 

Cookies for anyone who gets the reference.

[Night]

Like most people are saying, Who cares if my parents dont buy a new computer every year. Ill make up for it on their behalf and build a 5-10K computer. Look problem solved, Now go sit down.

[matin94]

thats good means more people are going to custom build or did i get the wrong idea :3

i dont see why anyone wouldnt custom build in the first place. ofc some people dont know how to but im sure everyone knows someone who can build a PC

[JLCitadel]

Everyone has a desktop computer that can do everything they need to do: taxes, Microsoft Office, web browsing, etc.

 

Would you buy a new computer every single year even though your Pentium II works just fine? Exactly.

 

We buy computers and computer parts because we play video games on PC, thus we need the best or second best to be able to perform decently to our standards. These reports only factor in OEM purchases, like from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.

 

You shouldn't be concerned, these aren't about us, it's about the general public.

 

^ Oh and not to mention, I'd say in 2-4 years there will be a spike in sales. Then a decline, again. When people realize their computers are shit

[mr moose]

 

Such doom and gloom I'm sick of hearing about it. It isn't even the biggest decline in PC sales we've had in 2012 but it was the end of x86!. Piss off... For many years we've heard PC SALES ARE DOWN! Which was BS as they were going up year over year what was down was the percentage of growth.

 

I work in IT I consider myself a enthusiast but I'm still running an i7 930 with a GTX 470 and see no reason to upgrade. We aren't seeing the huge leaps in performance we once were. Most people just don't need it. They're more than happy with the system they bought several years ago. An if you throw an SSD in it, watch peoples eyes light up.

 

Most articles that spew complete horse shit about the end of the PC never actual mention numbers other that declines in growth percentages and word it as if actual sales have dropped. Last year is the first year in 12 years it's actually declined for realzies! But we've been hearing about the end of the PC for 10 years... Lets have a look at the numbers on wikipedia. 

 

Unit sales:

 

1999

Units (M) 113.5

Growth 21.7%

 

2000

Units (M) 134.7

Growth 14.5%

 

2001

Units (M) 128.1

Growth -4.6%

 

Lets skip ahead a bit.

 

2008

Units (M) 302.2

Growth 10.9%

 

2009

Units (M) 305.9

Growth 1.2%

 

2010

Units (M) 351

Growth 13.8%

 

2011

Units (M) 352.8

Growth 0.5%

 

2012

Units (M) 352.7

Growth -0.035%

 

OMG THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!11111

 

I think you have missed the point, this article refers to quite comprehensive data that shows a decline in pc sales. This information is very important to the industry as a whole, it plays a role in OS development, laptop development and configuration it also gives component manufactures an idea where their R&d dollars need to be spent. It may not directly effect the small percentage of peole who DIY their computers but indirectly it will effect the options we have via, OS and component development. FYI today's processors are still x86 they never stopped making them they just stopped making the 32bit version.

[Harvey]

I think you have missed the point, this article refers to quite comprehensive data that shows a decline in pc sales. This information is very important to the industry as a whole, it plays a role in OS development, laptop development and configuration it also gives component manufactures an idea where their R&d dollars need to be spent. It may not directly effect the small percentage of peole who DIY their computers but indirectly it will effect the options we have via, OS and component development. FYI today's processors are still x86 they never stopped making them they just stopped making the 32bit version.

 

I understand everything you said and I agree 100%. The end of the x86 part was me making fun of claims the PC was dead.

 

My rant was largely targeted at the "pc sales are dropping massively are we concerned" question posed by the OP. The question of concern wouldn't exist if some in the media didn't hype it up. if the PC hadn't been declared dead or dying or we're now in the post-PC era. Which with the latter one can everyone stop using it... It's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Post is a prefix meaning after, so after they were invented? What are you trying to say? *twitches*

 

My point was so many articles out there use any decline in sales to say that "the PC is dead" when the numbers show it's in fact pretty healthy. There have been fluctuations in the market with 10%+ growth swings before. I understand that this time its sales not growth but come on... Many people in the media want to say something but are not intelligent enough to say anything of merit.The PC won't go anywhere. It'll continue to be popular.

 

So yea rant about the hysteria about decline not about the article.

 

The article itself wasn't scaremongering as others I've read.

However, the long-term outlook for the two markets is not significantly different, with a small decline projected for both consumer and commercial segments in 2014 with near flat growth in the longer term.

 

So this is a normalisation of the market after a period of prolonged growth aka not a big deal.

[MystiqThunder]

There will always be the need for the PC.  Think of it this way.  Our desktops completely over power our laptops and phones right now.  So by the time they inherit the power the PC has now, the PC will be light years ahead again.  The Desktop will always be more powerful, and the people who can harness the power (gamers, artists, video editors, etc.) will drive the market.

[orangecat]

When they mean PC sales they ovbuoisly don't mean number of PC/desktop users just sales. People will always buy laptops and desktop they will never go anywhere. A CELLPHONE WILL NEVER BE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO TAKE OUT THE DESKTOP EVER.

[mr moose]

I understand everything you said and I agree 100%. The end of the x86 part was me making fun of claims the PC was dead.

 

My rant was largely targeted at the "pc sales are dropping massively are we concerned" question posed by the OP. The question of concern wouldn't exist if some in the media didn't hype it up. if the PC hadn't been declared dead or dying or we're now in the post-PC era. Which with the latter one can everyone stop using it... It's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Post is a prefix meaning after, so after they were invented? What are you trying to say? *twitches*

 

My point was so many articles out there use any decline in sales to say that "the PC is dead" when the numbers show it's in fact pretty healthy. There have been fluctuations in the market with 10%+ growth swings before. I understand that this time its sales not growth but come on... Many people in the media want to say something but are not intelligent enough to say anything of merit.The PC won't go anywhere. It'll continue to be popular.

 

So yea rant about the hysteria about decline not about the article.

 

The article itself wasn't scaremongering as others I've read.

 

 

So this is a normalisation of the market after a period of prolonged growth aka not a big deal.

In other words typical media hype and no one actually checking the source statistics for qualification. Shock horror. :lol: