PCs may be mounting a comeback in the wake of slowed tablet growth

[Shawn Knight]

According to early results from IDC, consumer interest in the traditional PC is once again picking up. The market research firm found global PC shipments only dropped 1.7 percent year-over-year during the second quarter, from 75.7 million to 74.4 million. Yes, it's still a drop but it's also the smallest decline since the second quarter of 2012.

So, what's going on exactly?

We recently learned that tablet growth is slowing down as market saturation and other contributing factors set in. Consumers, however, aren't showing signs of spending less which means some of that money is now being used to buy PCs.

Of course, that's only a fraction of the equation. We must also consider the fact that Microsoft ended support for Windows XP back in April. Instead of paying extra for extended support, many businesses are seeing it as a prime time to buy new hardware with either Windows 7 or a Windows 8 variant pre-installed.

IDC analyst Jay Chou pointed out another contributing factor - low-end system sales. In an odd bit of irony, budget machines like Chromebooks now appear to be cannibalizing tablet sales.

While the improvements are welcomed for PC makers, IDC said they don't yet see enough evidence to raise the long-term outlook for this year. If nothing else, however, growth could get closer to being flat versus earlier projections of a six percent decline.

Are you planning to purchase a new desktop or notebook PC this year?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/57372-pcs-may-be-mounting-a-comeback-in-the-wake-of-slowed-tablet-growth.html

 

[yRaz]

I also think people are starting to realize that while tablets are convenient, they aren't as functional as a full fledged PC.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Meantime! Nothing is really changing the way we use our devices. We are only upgrading our older machines.

 

[TomSEA]

I also think people are starting to realize that while tablets are convenient, they aren't as functional as a full fledged PC.

Exactly. Was talking about this with some IT friends just last night. They're hearing it from people who are now "disappointed" in that all they can really effectively do with tablets is read e-mail, do a little net searching and watch videos with crummy resolution/smoothness.

They're nice for portability if you want to do the bare minimum computer basics, but in no way can they replace a full blown desktop or decent laptop.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

In an odd bit of irony, budget machines like Chromebooks now appear to be cannibalizing tablet sales.

it's not cannibalizing unless it's a company hurting the sales of their OWN product. Like if Apple made a cheap $500 laptop and it hurt iPad sales.

I think it's easy to compare tablet and PC sales and think one has an affect on the other. In the past that's probably been true, but I think in this case these are two independent things.

 

[Railman]

I dare say another factor is education. My daughter has no choice but to use a PC for her school work.

 

[TheDreams]

While I passionately use my tablet for games that was are quick and convenient on the go, I also love to chill at home; turn down the lights, grab a drink, get a little weird and play some good Pc games.

I will always continue to upgrade my Pc or by a new one, Pc4lyfe.

 

[Guest]

I personally don't think it is an " oh no tablets suck they do nothing I must return to a desktop " issue at all.
Tablets and Smartphones, have a place. Mostly Facebook users, people who like mobile games, possibly mobile/field service engineers who need to log their days.

I have a nexus 7. Instantly rooted and flashed. And I only use it to play a few things, or the odd bit of browsing as mentioned above. But I knew that was what it would be when I got it. I didn't ask the age old stupid question of "can it run Crysis?". A basic tool for basic on the fly needs, should I need it, should the option be available.

IF PC sales were at all slowing down, I hardly thing tablets were what caused this. £100 - £600, depending on your budget, and if you go with wallet raping Apple. Thats, a PC component or even a semi decent PC right there, in terms of pricing. And some people have already mentioned upgrading, people just tend to upgrade PCs or build their own so like Brad Pitt they know "whats in the box?", because you never know what shonky crap Dell may throw inside one of their budget boxes.

Most people I know build their own, buy bits from various sites, so, surely their are many numbers in that sense, missing from these so called reports. So articles like this, are moot.

People who buy prebuilt machines overly priced from a high street store, are more likely IMO to be the Facebook using, non tech savvy types who are happy to use a tablet rather than their slow booting malware infested desktop or laptop thats slown down to a crawl. And those type of people don't care about anything other than their facebook wall, to come to a site like techspot.

 

[thelatestmodel]

The PC market never went away. Analysts just lost their mind over the exploding popularity of tablets and correlated that with a decline in PC numbers.

Now the market for those is stabilizing, because lots of people have them and people are realizing that actually they can only ever be complimentary devices, not workstations. I see people trying to use tablets as their main work machine every so often, and every time it's evident that they have to make some pretty big sacrifices to get that much portability.

A lot of people are also waking up to the fact that even a moderately priced gaming PC is a better and more powerful machine than either a PS4 or Xbox One.

 

[Mister_K]

These companies need to invest more into aesthetics of the machines, currently these designs of the machines and overall structure is horrible. I am surprised why Origin, CMaster, Corsair don't sell premades in stores such as PC World, Maplins and other electronic stores :/ General population has a bad idea of PCs being rather poor, inferior to other more "fashionable" computers because of their aesthetic design.

 

[drjekel_mrhyde]

Do they count Surface Pro as a tablet or a PC?

 

[Teko03]

Do they count Surface Pro as a tablet or a PC?

Who know's, but this can be great news for the future of Microsoft. They can go back to top if Windows Threshold / 9 finally creates the perfect UI for Desktop + Touch without sacrifice. And if Windows Threshold is a sucess....Windows Phone could see a nice boost in US growth over the next 1-2 years.

 

[Mikael_r]

I don't plan on buying a new PC, but I plan on building my own.
I would say there is a *slight* correlation between tablet and PC sales. Some people I work with have bought an iPad, then say they should get rid of their old laptop since they essentially stopped using it. I use both, since you can't play games like SCII on a tablet lol. Depends on the person, and how they decide to utilize the technology.

 

[kuroiei]

Well then. Everybody bought the tablets and other crazy gadgets, and after a while the people who needed to work realized "damn, my PC is running hella slow! Well, it's time for a new one". I just don't see the future without some PCs, as the stuff that exists on the tablet (system, apps, games, ringtones even) had to be created on SOMETHING, and I doubt it was a tablet. Either way - woo hoo, long live the king. I never buy PCs, I'm building and tweaking them myself (oh, the pleasure, the thrill), so I'm no good for reinforcing those sale stats, but yeah, PC won't die.

 

[Dukenukemx]

The PC is open compared to Android or iOS. Including Windows based tablets, which lock you from ever switching to another OS. That and a tablet is as useful as a Nintendo 3DS.

 

[kissx]

I'm old skool! I like sitting at a desk