PC shipments continue freefall ahead of Windows 10's arrival

Shawn Knight

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Staff member

The second quarter of 2015 saw the sharpest decline in global PC shipments in close to two years and once again serves as a reminder that last year’s brief resurgence was little more than a fluke.

According to research firm Gartner, shipments dipped 9.5 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2014, down to 68.4 million units. International Data Corporation (IDC), which doesn’t consider tablets to be computers, noted an 11.8 percent drop during the same period for a total of 66.1 million PCs shipped.

Despite declining sales, Lenovo held onto the top spot among PC makers with a 20.3 percent share of the market according to IDC. HP finished the quarter in second place with 18.5 percent of the market followed by Dell with a 14.55 percent share.

The PC market started showing signs of trouble in 2012 around the time when tablets exploded in popularity. The rise of large-screen smartphones only added fuel to the fire, further pushing us into the mobile-first culture we live in today.

Slowing tablet sales combined with the holiday buying season resulted in PC shipments growing by double digits late last year. Many believed this was a turning point for the industry but as we’ve witnessed thus far this year, the holiday spark ultimately provided a false sense of optimism.

The next several months, however, will be especially telling. Microsoft is gearing up to launch Windows 10 later this month following the lukewarm reception of Windows 8 in 2012. The early consensus is that Windows 10 is a winner and with Windows XP reaching the end of official support last year, Microsoft will no doubt have a direct impact on the PC industry in the near future.

Even still, the long-term outlook doesn’t look too hot for PCs. IDC said a year ago that it expects PC sales to continue to decline through 2018.

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I would bet on a decline!

the only thing that would make people upgrade would be a failure.

The web is becoming more mobile optimized and it does not take a beefy computer to run basic web apps.
Flash is now pretty much dead, and the internet in general needs less compute power to have a good experience.

Makes total scene why tablets are eating away at PC market share. The PC can be totally replaced for web browsing and communications by a tablet or a smart phone.

I would guess the PCs for gaming market is growing, and will continue to, for the next few years.
 
A decline in computer sales won't hurt the release of Windows 10, as people will be upgrading from 7/8/8.1 on their current machines. I have the Insider Preview version and have to say (with the exception of a few bugs that are sure to be fixed by launch day) it is fantastic. I don't know about you guys, but I've been going with the 'Every other OS' rule since XP, and it's still hitting the nail on the head. I never had to deal with Vista or 8, and I'm sure glad I didn't.
 
I think the biggest reason for the decline is that there isn't enough of a difference in the performance to warrant a full upgrade over the last 4 years. Heck, I built a sandy bridge with 2600K i7 4 years ago and it is still doing well. With a good SSD in it from the start the only thing I need to change out is the graphics card and its still good to go. I may build a new machine when sky lake comes out but in reality that means a new chip, mobo and memory; the rest I will reuse.

Dave
 
A decline in computer sales won't hurt the release of Windows 10, as people will be upgrading from 7/8/8.1 on their current machines.

True, but that upgrade is free, so Microsoft only makes money if:
a) people buy a new PC/tablet (and even then, I think it's free for OEMs to put on low-end tablets to compete with Android)
b) people subscribe to O365
OR
c) people buy MS Store apps
 
LOL! Funniest thing I've heard in years. Your PC is pretty much an obsolete pile of crap within 3-5 years. Much sooner (think 1-2 years) if you're a gamer.
 
LOL! Funniest thing I've heard in years. Your PC is pretty much an obsolete pile of crap within 3-5 years. Much sooner (think 1-2 years) if you're a gamer.
That's the dumbest thing I've heard in ages...

I still run a 3770k and 690 for gaming and there is no reason to upgrade any time soon. It's over 3 years old and far from a pile of crap. Still runs everything with everything on well over any noticeable drops. If you have to have the latest and greatest just to play against the Jones', that's your own issue but it doesn't mean anything to the rest of us who simply have no reason to upgrade. $ isn't the issue, just no reason.
 
LOL! Funniest thing I've heard in years. Your PC is pretty much an obsolete pile of crap within 3-5 years. Much sooner (think 1-2 years) if you're a gamer.
That's the dumbest thing I've heard in ages...

I still run a 3770k and 690 for gaming and there is no reason to upgrade any time soon. It's over 3 years old and far from a pile of crap. Still runs everything with everything on well over any noticeable drops. If you have to have the latest and greatest just to play against the Jones', that's your own issue but it doesn't mean anything to the rest of us who simply have no reason to upgrade. $ isn't the issue, just no reason.
I couldn't agree more.

My two best computers use a 3770K and a 4790K. I bought myself a GTX 980 and tried it in both computers. The difference in 3DMark Firestrike score: 11580 vs 11980, respectively. And that's with DX11, right? We're moving into a DX12 age now where we no longer need monster CPU's for gaming.

In fact, I recently invested in a Kraken x61 watercooler for both these systems because I realized the fact that they'll last for years to come. A bit better cooling ensures longer life. :)
 
Simply put, the total number of electronic devices out here that are capable of running the internet, games, business app's, etc. have saturated the market. People have figured out they simply don't need three, four or more devices and trying to keep them all current is not money wise and certainly doesn't improve their lives, their stature or anything else. It is simply a matter of marketing and marketers, trying to separate us from our hard earned cash. The improvements of the PC and other devices continues to slow and "needing" to upgrade these systems is more about what you're being sold rather than what good common sense tells you.

Still running Office 2000 and not missing the "newest, latest, greatest" MS office. My old laser printer works despite me having to write the last driver for it since is suddenly wasn't supported by windows 8.1, and why buy a new SSD when the old hard drive loads those word documents at just a few seconds slower, giving me added time to refill my coffee cup.

So people laugh at my old computers, old cars and simple house ... but are astounded that I have the money to go to Europe and Asia each year on nice vacations. It's all just a matter of priorities and I have yet to figure out how having a half dozen "state of the art" systems needs to be a priority ....

What did I miss?
 
To a part, this is true in the Philippines.
most people on a budget (students and young professionals) are likely to buy budget android phablets/tablets (~10,000php / ~200$) and play mostly free/legal android games than buy a budget pc (~15,000php / ~300$), buy/pirate games.

and this is due to 'miscue'. a bank personnel I had talked with in the past compares a 1.7ghz+ phablet to a 1.7ghz+ pc processor as having the same speed in utilizing programs and games. she likewise had no idea between the difference in the size of pc games and android games.
 
I think the biggest reason for the decline is that there isn't enough of a difference in the performance to warrant a full upgrade over the last 4 years. Heck, I built a sandy bridge with 2600K i7 4 years ago and it is still doing well. With a good SSD in it from the start the only thing I need to change out is the graphics card and its still good to go. I may build a new machine when sky lake comes out but in reality that means a new chip, mobo and memory; the rest I will reuse.

Dave

Better go to Haswell-E. You get 4 more threads than the mainstream counterpart for a few more bucks than the i7 4970K -you'll see an actual difference, no doubt-, you'll change your memory anyway, and you can buy an X99 mobo that's up to par in price (~$200) with a high-end Z97 mobo.
 
True, but that upgrade is free, so Microsoft only makes money if:
a) people buy a new PC/tablet (and even then, I think it's free for OEMs to put on low-end tablets to compete with Android)
b) people subscribe to O365
OR
c) people buy MS Store apps

Not everyone is going to be upgrading in the first year. A lot of businesses will not be, and so when they do upgrade their older machines to a new OS, they will still be paying for it. Where as in most cases in the past, people only upgraded if they were using a new machine or were ready for a clean install.
 
Anyone who thinks tablets will EVER replace PCs LOL
Well I'm not shortsighted and can see that PC's are getting smaller and smaller. It is only a matter of time before PC's are small enough to be tablets. Whether they are still called Tablets or not, only time will tell. Something I learned back in the 90's, the word "NEVER" should not be used.
 
Simply put, the total number of electronic devices out here that are capable of running the internet, games, business app's, etc. have saturated the market. People have figured out they simply don't need three, four or more devices and trying to keep them all current is not money wise and certainly doesn't improve their lives, their stature or anything else. It is simply a matter of marketing and marketers, trying to separate us from our hard earned cash. The improvements of the PC and other devices continues to slow and "needing" to upgrade these systems is more about what you're being sold rather than what good common sense tells you.

Still running Office 2000 and not missing the "newest, latest, greatest" MS office. My old laser printer works despite me having to write the last driver for it since is suddenly wasn't supported by windows 8.1, and why buy a new SSD when the old hard drive loads those word documents at just a few seconds slower, giving me added time to refill my coffee cup.

So people laugh at my old computers, old cars and simple house ... but are astounded that I have the money to go to Europe and Asia each year on nice vacations. It's all just a matter of priorities and I have yet to figure out how having a half dozen "state of the art" systems needs to be a priority ....

What did I miss?
You've missed the fact that this is a tech site and most people who visit it tend to have electrons flowing through their veins so they're likely to miss your point. As for me? I like the best of both worlds but I can't afford it so it's always a trade off.
 
Anyone who thinks tablets will EVER replace PCs LOL
Well I'm not shortsighted and can see that PC's are getting smaller and smaller. It is only a matter of time before PC's are small enough to be tablets. Whether they are still called Tablets or not, only time will tell. Something I learned back in the 90's, the word "NEVER" should not be used.

PCs getting smaller and smaller? Hell I bought a Cosmos 2 case to beef it out with some mad hardware. If anything, GPUs are getting bigger.

Content Creation and top of the line gaming will always require large machines. General Consumer market? Well of course, who needs a big machine to do your online shopping and browse the net. But we don't care about that market, why else be on an Enthusiasts catered website.

Also, have you seen the Consoles going down in size since the 80s? Not really.

there is a reason why "a handfull" is a big notion.
 
IMHO articles author got the title a bit wrong and should have been "PC shipments continue freefall ahead of Skylakes arrival" ... which would be the natural cause. Why buy old tech when new one is just around the corner.
 
Nobody needs to upgrade every three years now. You can easily hold your hardware for up to 10 years if you really want to.
5 years is more like it. 10 years is pushing things a bit.

Yeah. 10 years is really pushing it. For me personally 6-8 years has been the cycle for complete new PC. 7th year running now and already bought a case and PSU for next (Skylake) build.
 
Anyone who thinks tablets will EVER replace PCs LOL
Well I'm not shortsighted and can see that PC's are getting smaller and smaller. It is only a matter of time before PC's are small enough to be tablets. Whether they are still called Tablets or not, only time will tell. Something I learned back in the 90's, the word "NEVER" should not be used.

Tablets are evolution of laptops ... maybe. PC-s are entirely different breed. To say something like "PC-s shrink to tablets" is like saying that people's cars will shrink to mopeds and everyone will only be using those "very soon". NO! That does not work this way. I give you another and more likely option... PC will become more like Intel NUC-s and Compute-Sticks at some point...maybe... but still being attached to bigass screen with keyboard and mouse. To tablets? Never going to happen.
 
To say something like "PC-s shrink to tablets" is like saying that people's cars will shrink to mopeds and everyone will only be using those "very soon".
Only because the mopeds power is not increasing to the point of replacing the car. Your analogy is flawed!
 
Yeah. 10 years is really pushing it. For me personally 6-8 years has been the cycle for complete new PC. 7th year running now and already bought a case and PSU for next (Skylake) build.
Nice. I hope it gives you many years of good, trouble free service.
 
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