PC Sales Plummet: Prices to follow
wancow
Posts: 2,708
International Data Corp predicted sales would be down 7.7%.
When they did the survey, they found they were down 14%.
Windows 8 is blamed...
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22999065/pc-industry-sees-worst-sales-quarter-nearly-20
Time to watch PC Prices, people! If you're thinking about replacing an old PC...
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
The decline is probably more to do with the rise of tablets and smartphones that do many of the things that used to be solely the domain of computers at a cheaper price and with more portability.
that's definitely part of the story, they mention that in both reports I read.
And yet the only PC manufacturer who doesn't insist on having Win 8 on their machines is showing an increase in PC sales.
I guess I spend too much time here. I misinterpreted PC as "Platinum Club."
I've been using Win 8 for about a month or so, and while the fact that it's so different from Win 7 can be annoying at times--because so many processes have changed from what I'm used to--I don't see much else to complain about. I suppose that once I get used to it, I probably won't mind it. (A glowing endorsement to be sure!)
You know you're public approval rate is in the toilet when you consider "I don't mind it that much" a glowing endorsement :P
While a temporary or unanticipated decline may lead to lower prices for a while, too great a decline and especially the loss of the casual consumer market may push prices up in the longer term as full PCs (including Macs) become niche items.
I'm glad you mentioned this, Richard... it would be a disaster for the 3D Hobbyist Market if that happened... it means hardware prices would eventually skyrocket, making 3D unobtainable for the vast majority of people...
I really do not get why people are such old farts about win 8. It is easy to use and flexible. Yes it does occasionally make me wish I was able to swipe my finger across the monitor but that being a downside isn't all that new. Why is it that the internet user base seems more and more unable to cope with change and having things evolve rather than able to embrace the future and change? I begin to worry that is starting to be made up of old dogs who can't learn new tricks. I do have to hope that the prices drop and stay dropped long enough for me to save up for a new desk top though. I'll consider everyones win 8 phobia their loss and my gain price wise.
That's possible...seems like the average user might not need a system nearly as robust as your typical new desktop. And there are so many (often cheaper) alternatives these days...decreased demand for full PCs could become a long-term trend.
But as long as graphics-intensive computer games remain popular, I doubt 3D-friendly computers are really in great danger of becoming niche items. (Plus, someday you may be able to run DS or Poser on your phone or eyeglasses device...who knows?)
Windows 8 taketh but it rarely giveth back. The main reason it's so loathed is because the interface (which it throws into your face every 5 seconds) is so unintuitive on a PC. It does nothing special that Windows 7 doesn't already do, but there are a dozen things it does worse. The price is the only thing it has going for it, and as sales have shown even that isn't enough of a draw for all of it's problems. I had Windows 8 and retreated back to Windows 7 within a few weeks of using it.
I have good reasons why I dislike it, but I'll outline the major ones.
1) The start screen is awful. Clicking, dragging and positioning the cursor into sweet spots to find the shut down options. It's like trying to run a tablet with a mouse cursor instead of a finger, and it sucks.
2) The constant swapping. You simply cannot use ONLY the metro interface or ONLY the desktop. It forces you to swap between them like you're having some kind of epileptic seizure. Browsing files? Desktop. User accounts? Metro interface. Run a program? Desktop. Change settings? Metro.
3) That damned lock screen. It's not a mobile device, so there's no chance of me accidentally dragging across the screen. It's unnecessary. Please kill it with fire.
4) No start button. Considering this did everything that the supposedly 'new and fresh' start search does it makes me wonder why they removed it. Actually, they didn't. What they really did was to block it from being accessible. Originally done by removing the registry key (which during Beta could be changed to access the original Start menu), the system now ignores the registry key forcing you to resort to external programs like Start8.
5) Metro doesn't allow proper windows. I want to load up a calculator while adding up information on a webpage, so how do I go about that? Well, in Windows 7 I load calc and go maths crazy. In Windows 8 I have to load up calc, arrange it so that it now consumes HALF of my screen and the webpage consumes the other half. Ridiculous.
6) Windows knows best. Except when it doesn't. Yes, I'm talking about that retarded admin rights which effectively forces you to run your computer as an administrator full time because standard users have fewer rights than guests do on most other PCs.
7) Extremely basic dual monitor support. Also, in Metro, one of them is always a desktop, so I don't even get the option to expand my programs icons to see more of them at once.
8) The cardinal sin of them all. Print screen no longer functions as it once did. I regularly take snapshots of my screen for many reasons, and not being able to copy it into memory to paste into photoshop or similar is a pain. Instead, it's Winkey+Printscreen to save a copy as a file, which just adds unnecessary time and leaves me with excess files to delete afterwards.
9) Not all programs are compatible. Additionally, not all hardware has Windows 8 drivers. My sound card ceased to function and needed some hefty workarounds (which Windows made as difficult as possible to implement).
I get that some people are used to it, and it doesn't really bother me what people's preferences are. If I was using a touch screen I'm sure I'd love it. As it stands, Microsoft didn't pay any attention to their Beta testers and the result was a sloppy OS and a failed launch. Hopefully they'll have learned their lesson by the time the next one arrives.
I'm going to be really blunt - no offense is intended to those who might disagree, these are just my opinions and experiences.
- Mobile games are diversions; none can compete with a console or PC game, not to mention "virtual gamepads" are awful. I'm so sick of game industry 'experts' saying that the future of gaming is with mobile devices.
- When it comes to doing serious creative work, mobile apps are toys. Without an accurate stylus or mouse, how can they be anything else?
- Nothing beats browsing the internet on a real PC. I have access to a tablet and I hate using it because not only is it slow (on local wi-fi, I get ten times the speed on my connected PC in the same house), mobile 4G access is still laughably expensive in many places, and I'd prefer not to have to zoom in every time I want to accurately click on a link.
I don't believe prices on PCs will go up, if anything they'll drop because everyone is rushing out to get the latest portable so they can instantly share what they're having for lunch on Facebook and Twitter. ;) For the moment, and likely for a while, nothing can beat a big honkin' REAL PC.
I hate absolutely everything about windows 8 and am not looking forward to 9. Windows 8 is the very worst Operating system well systems, because the new metro or modern interface runs completely independent from the desktop interface. I run small computer shop and do not and will not service windows 8 machines. People bring them in thinking they have viruses and I tell them the computer is clean, the problem is windows 8. I predict that they will not even make a service pack for windows 8 and just move straight into 9. I also predict just like what happened with vista Microsoft will spend more money into marketing their stepped on rubbed off piece of fecal matter than they spent on the actual software. The operating system is so bad that Steven Sinofsky was fired because of it. Windows 8 phones suck and so does the windows surface. The sad things that not only is the software bad but the hardware is bad as well. HP and a few other companies have had to recall several of the new desktop laptop hybrids because they sucked. A lot of manufactures are taking or rather were taking laptop parts and putting them into computer cases. If you look at the back you will see no power supply and you do not use a regular power cord. instead you use a laptop charger.
Does anyone remember the Windows Mojave commercials, notice how none of these people actually used the software.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsStHxtVr_w
Windows 8: The Animated Evaluation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo
windows 8 fixes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rycUk5kEx0k
Windows 8 and its app-store were made so that Microsoft can control the content being used on their machines.
The next version of windows will be called blue and I am sure this video was made in response to the name.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/gmail-blue-april-fools-day-2013-prank_n_2990394.html
widows blue so far
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/25/4144618/windows-blue-video-preview-screenshots
I just don't have those issues with things HeraldOfFire. I spent an hour learning how things worked and since then it has been easy to work with and in many ways finding things is faster for me now. I guess I would rather use my iphone for a calculator than piddle with it on my computer and so forth but that is just me. The whole "I've never actually tried it or spent time using it but I know its awful and I won't be able to get use to it" thing that drives me crazy. Close minded for close minded sake is just silly. I am sure there are people who can't adjust to change but the reality seems to be more and more people are just not willing to even try.
I think it speaks more to the mobile generation than desktop users. Everything about it screams 'mobile device' to the extent that anything which requires normal desktop operation feels clunky and ill-fitting. Sure there will be people who hate it for the sake of hating it, but for me using Windows 8 proved to be considerably less productive than using Windows 7, and there's literally no good reasons to 'upgrade' since Windows 7 does it all so much better.
This lady, she is a software UI Annalist said it best, Windows 8 is more for software consumption rather than production.
Tablets and such are simply blunt "tools" (an insult to tools everywhere) for even more vacuous consumption, not creation.
In other words, I despise everything they stand for. :P
Ha! I thought it meant Platinum Club, too. I was all "What? Sales aren't down. Also, they're $1.99, how much of a price drop are you looking for?"
Much as I love my desktop (Gen X here, 32 this October) I won't be at all surprised to find that platform becoming the province of developers and the more hardcore gamers. Gaming on a PC is in every way prettier than gaming on any console and certainly than on handhelds, but brilliant mechanics are not a platform-dependant nor yet a graphics-level-dependant concept, and it's brilliant mechanics combined with appropriate art (not necessarily resource-advanced art) that really move gaming products. There are just more casual gamers and it's easier to develop games for them.
I think Windows 8 is probably just something arriving at an awkward time for what it represents - new OS for the new Microsoft tablets, great idea; bundling that new OS onto hardware that inherently lacks touchscreens, awful.
I received a new laptop for Christmas, as my older one is slowly dying. It came with Windows 8. My initial response was "What the ** is this?" then quite a while longer to figure out how to shut down the system, it seemed quite hidden to me. So yes, I did think about trying to downgrade it back to Win 7, but I stuck with it. So now I have 7 on my desktop and 8 on my laptop. I don't like 8, it really does seem to be more geared for touch-screen than mouse and keyboard, but I keep adjusting. Thus far, except for my wacom Intuos 3, I haven't had any real problems with 8 after I figure out how to do something. My current "annoyance" right now is the "preferred" readers for documents and photos. But I haven't had as much time to figure those out since I mainly use my laptop for DIM downloads and on weekends.
I've never really seen any point in the whole "upgrade" thing anyway. Few computers are going to last more than a half dozen years anyway so that happens due to hardware not software for me. But the concept that people are afraid/unwilling to get a new computer because of a new verson of the OS boggles my mind.
...I miss my XP, Almost thought about biting the bullet to get XP Pro 64 but because it now has the "legacy" label, it is actually more expensive than 7.
While a bit "shiner" than XP, I have found 7 to be rather nice to work with. I can pretty much configure it the way I like with little trouble. It also takes advantage of the newer hardware and setup concepts (like my tri channel RAM). When I boot up the workstation it takes only a few moments to be "ready to go" even with everything I already have installed. 3Advanced and 4.5 boot up fast, very fast.
Unfortunately it too is now beginning to go the way a "special" item as when I go to various custom build sites, it is now offered as an option usually at an additional rather than reduced cost (guess I better get my Pro 64 upgrade soon).
For me the more "elegant" (read simpler) the UI of the OS, the better.
WIn8 is just an overly busy mess of graphic clutter that is much more suited to data tablets, dumb phones, and touch screens than a true workstation setup or even a notebook for that matter. I loathe hidden menus, buttons,and toolbars (which is why on my notebook I still have Office 2K as the 2010 version of the Office apps suck rocks about the size of small planetoids with that stupid "ribbon" which replaced the trusty old menu bar). The more steps you have to take to do a simple operation, the less elegant and more cumbersome it becomes.
..or as Scotty so eloquently put it, "the more they over tech the plumbin', the easier it is to stop up the drain"
Who thinks up these stupid ideas (and where can I get a job and be paid to do the same, I'm tired of having to use my smarts all the time)?
All I can say those eighteen months reading/viewing tutorials, reviews, learning about system configuration, component design, and workstation setup looks like it was time well spent.
This IMHO pretty much sums up the whole situation. Win8 seems to have been designed from the ground up as a phone or tablet OS, which is great if you're using a phone or a tablet, with a phone or tablet's touchscreen. If you're used to a desktop or laptop with a conventional keyboard and non-touch screen, particularly if you don't use a mobile phone or tablet, then Win8 is likely to leave you confused if not hopelessly lost when you're suddenly faced with all these apps.
XP X64 with the windows vista black theme is AMAZING and to this day is the most stable version of Windows I have used!
I agree Windows 8 is for people who do nothing all day but search for youtube videos and facebook that is why they should have kept two separate operating systems but the problem is the desktop environment of 8 is garbage as well as the Metro and Blue interfaces.
One of the biggest flaws with it is if you run more than one screen like me, I use two to three screens to work. The "Charms" becomes spastic and does not know where to come from.
The entire thing needs to be recalled no updated or upgraded. The best upgrade you can do to a windows 8 machine is install windows 7 or Linux, either Ubuntu or Mint running Either Mate or Cinnamon.
Now that I'm in agreement with. Even if you hate the OS you can always just install Windows 7 on it instead, so you can't put the blame for decreasing PC sales solely on Win8.
Though I wonder if those statistics include components...
I purpose built my machine. I chose the hard drives, the memory, the motherboard, the case. Every last component that went into my machine was hand picked to deliver the best performance for the best price for me. I'm sure I'm not alone, so perhaps people are wising up and building their systems rather than paying for copy-pasted pre-made ones .
"N word" technology? If "N" means what I think it means, you could have left that remark out of this. I just don't think it brings anything good to the conversation.
Windows 8, no matter what all you haters say, is not remotely bad, horrible, or the worst UI ever. It's just not intuitive to a lot of people, although admittedly, it should have been given more flexibility so that the Metro touchscreen interface was optional.
edited out of the post
They never should have put the included Metro in the none touch screen desktop.
You know how many people have touch screen computers, less than 1 percent. and you how many people actually use the touch screen on the touch screen computers less than 1 percent
Windows 8 is a terrible terrible OS.
Oh, I get it, and that's why I said it should have been an option you could turn off. I use a touchpad device that works like a touchscreen, so being disabled myself, it works fine for me (the device I use right now has some issues, however). But the OS itself, if you ignore that part of the interface, is rock solid and runs well. That's why I personally don't see it as awful, just the victim of an awful choice by the developers not to make it more configurable.
As for the original topic, I think what we're seeing now is that a whole lot of people who previously had to use PCs or laptops, really didn't need a full-fledged computer for their everyday uses. What's happening now is that the PC market is now going to be condensed down to the real PC users, the ones who actually need a PC to do their everyday tasks. Just watch some of the tablet and cellphone presentations on one of the shopping channels and you'll see that most of the people calling in to those shows are elderly or pre-elderly types, people who probably never really needed a real PC but who had no other option until recently. Tablets are so much easier for them. Even my nearly 70 year old mother, since I gave her my old iPad, is almost as good on Google as I am now. :-)
I have to agree that I think the traditional desktops will be used by a smaller number of people, with tablets and phones going to the majority of ones.
I am not excited about an upgrade to a system that is designed for a tablet user such as Win8. Hopefully they come out with a service pack of some sort that makes it better. I imagine that most business users are not impressed with the new OS.
Anyway it cracks me up how many people have to have the newest gadget, yet barely scratch the surface of the capabilities of them.
Amy
Greetings,
If you're 32 this October, you're more likely a Millennial or an XY Cusper.
As for Personal Computers, I love the spectrum of phone, tablet, and PC (desktop/laptop). The spectrum is convenience vs. power; my phone is always in my pocket, keeping me in touch and connected to the vast power of the Internet. My tablet is not always with me, but when I want to kick back on the couch, or hit the rest room, it has more power than my phone, and a better screen, but is still more convenient than a laptop or (of course) desktop. Then, when I really want to crank out code or do awesome 3D stuff (should I ever be capable of that last) I sit down at my laptop or desktop.
For me, the laptop and desktop systems are extensions of that... I can lie in bed and construct a scene on my laptop, then save it, and by the time I've walked to my desktop box in another room Dropbox has already synchronized the scene to it, and I can load it in DAZ Studio and start the render.
Convenience vs. power. Different tools for different circumstances.
-- Morgan
Now that I'm in agreement with. Even if you hate the OS you can always just install Windows 7 on it instead, so you can't put the blame for decreasing PC sales solely on Win8.
Though I wonder if those statistics include components...
I purpose built my machine. I chose the hard drives, the memory, the motherboard, the case. Every last component that went into my machine was hand picked to deliver the best performance for the best price for me. I'm sure I'm not alone, so perhaps people are wising up and building their systems rather than paying for copy-pasted pre-made ones .
I certainly agree with build your own concept when it comes to a computer that is used for the things that we love to do which is to create. Whether that is videos, beautiful 2D art or the many other things that we as artists love to do. You just can't beat a home built system as long as you know what you are doing or have someone else help you. The problem is cost. It can be expensive as hell. I spent over $4000 for my system 2 yrs ago when Windows 7 was released. The good thing is it can still compete with anything released today.
As far as a Windows operating system, I have never used anything better than 7. It is better than what XP became with all of the upgrades, which was up to that point, the best working windows based system. Other than getting used to 7, I have not had any problems with it. As far as a MAC or any other O/S, I cannot say as I have no experience with them. One of them may be better than any Windows system, but I am not willing to let go of 7 since it is what I want in a PC, something that works with very few flaws. I will eventually have to upgrade some day, but not until something has proven to be just as good or when 7 is no longer supported and has become outdated.
Here is a funny thing
Every time nvidia brings out a new thousand dollar video card it instantly sells out.
what is your disability if you don't mind me asking I have early onset arthritis and carpal tunnel. The arthritis is not full blown yet but its only a matter of time.
I have to wear a special bracelet or I get this tremendous pain from my thumb to my shoulder and often can't move my arms or fingers because of the pain. Sometimes I get the pain because my forearm swells and I have to take the bracelet off.