IDC: Tablets Outselling Desktops and Notebooks Put Together in the UK

[2is]

If the Surface Pro was thinner, lighter and had better battery life, it would be my laptop in addition to my tablet. I think once Broadwell hits, there will be x86 based tablets that will meet my laptop needs and I won't need a separate laptop. Though I will still have a desktop because I like having multiple large screens and a full size keyboard without having to plug/unplug things when I want to be mobile vs stationary. Oh and 200+ watt video cards, I like those too.

 

[n7]

Mobile/portable computing is taking over for the mainstream user, nothing surprising about this!

Most people only need a smartphone/tablet, and maybe a notebook these days for their needs.

 

[blackened23]

Agreed with 2is, I love the desktop and PC gaming has been a hobby for a long time - yet, I also realize that the great majority of general consumers don't care about gaming and can also do all of their computing tasks on a tablet - so I understand why consumer preferences have shifted.

Anyway, I completely agree about the Surface Pro as well. I think the concept is fantastic, and once the battery life is in line with other ultra portable devices (and prices - I've heard hints that MS is releasing smaller Surface Pros in the future) that MS can make a splash with it. Unfortunately the original iterations have been hampered by poor battery life with the pro, and the complete lack of a software ecosystem with the RT version. I don't think RT can recover, but I think Surface Pro has a lot of potential. I'd love to see Haswell or Broadwell ULV versions of them in 7-8 inch form factors, priced to move. I know i'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Oh another side note related to this (applicable to the surface) - Microsoft definitely needs to make DPI scaling more elegant in windows 8 - if they want to compete with Apple on the high end, windows 8 convertibles need better displays with better DPI scaling. XP style scaling is fastastic on the desktop, i'm not sure about it on the convertible or tablet, though. I think a lot of it relates to Apple doing scaling in 2.0 increments, while XP style does 1.4 or 1.8? If they made it an identical 2.0 that would instantly make every browser on the planet scale perfectly with higher DPI settings (without resorting to higher text/font sizes) Oh, and.....non XP DPI scaling is completely worthless. I wouldn't shed a tear if they completely removed it, it makes everything excessively blurry.

 

[lagokc]

you bolded email. does emailing need that much compute?
as for desktop publishing - was thinking in term of basic publishing (ms office suite).

of course if you need i7-3930k or titan. tablet not gonna cut it. for everything else. tablet is plenty.

It's not a matter of compute, it's about actually being able to type. With swipe users average 40 words per minute. The Guinness world record for Swype is 58 wpm. On a real keyboard I can comfortably type twice the speed of the world record tablet speed. Anything I want to type or email takes two to three times as long to type on a tablet compared to a keyboard. Spreadsheets take a LOT longer on a tablet (no ctrl-down, tab, type, tab, type, enter, ctrl-v, etc). Tablets are toys, if you use one for desktop publishing at work you should probably be fired unless you're writing children's books.

I suppose if the next generation never learns to actually type on a real keyboard then they won't be any faster on one but imo that's a step backward in technology.

 

[beginner99]

Tablets shipped and what users actually bought are 2 different things. here you get deals for new contracts like cable, TV phone etc. and a free tablet on top. Also tablets are often bought as gifts due to the hype. What would be more interesting is an actual usage statistics and I bet you most of these tablet owners will actually use their laptop when surfing.

So shipped != people actually use it and like it. My brother got a tablet in such a deal. he hasn't even used it once yet...

And if you post here often a tablet won't do it as ti just sucks like crap for typing. hell what can you use it for? watch youtube? I don't get it. But then I also don't get all the utter uninteresting, useless and shallowr crap people write on facebook and twitter

 

[ShintaiDK]

Tablets are also, like smartphones, very short lived items. Hence the rapid replacement cycle and overrated sales when compared to PCs. Smartphones and tablets in average got a lifespan of around 18 months. A PC is several years to compare.

If tablets will survieve in the long run is another issue. Specially with new ultrabooks as we see with Haswell CPUs. And Phablets in in the other end.

The tablet is the optional part, not the other 2.

 

[lagokc]

And if you post here often a tablet won't do it as ti just sucks like crap for typing. hell what can you use it for? watch youtube? I don't get it. But then I also don't get all the utter uninteresting, useless and shallowr crap people write on facebook and twitter

One friend of mine uses a tablet to do chess puzzles to keep his mind occupied while he's on the treadmill at the gym. Another uses one because a lot of tabletop games have scorekeeping apps. In both cases sub-$100 tablets work just fine and a more expensive tablet would not function any better.

 

[lopri]

It's nice when I decide to take a look around here and am reminded how dense denizens are. No need to wave through many threads to what they are up to. ^^

Tablets are selling not because they are toys, but because they can do what many people used laptops or PCs for. And they increasingly do more in tandem with smartphones. Portability and lower prices only helps, of course. (decent smartphones aren't that cheap, btw)

Tablets and smartphones are PCs. In different form factors.


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[StrangerGuy]

It's nice when I decide to take a look around here and am reminded how dense denizens are. No need to wave through many threads to what they are up to. ^^

Tablets are selling not because they are toys, but because they can do what many people used laptops or PCs for. And they increasingly do more in tandem with smartphones. Portability and lower prices only helps, of course. (decent smartphones aren't that cheap, btw)

Tablets and smartphones are PCs. In different form factors.


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I'm sure tablets will be the greatest thing ever made here if they were Intel-based.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I'm sure tablets will be the greatest thing ever made here if they were Intel-based.

That tablets replace PCs because its Intel inside?

http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung....1-to-feature-atom-clovertrail-soc/20273.html

No, just no.

 

[Lonyo]

I'm sure tablets will be the greatest thing ever made here if they were Intel-based.

Tablets that can do all the things a regular computer can do are great compared to tablets that can't.
Currently those tablets are Intel based, predominantly.
While they are not the "greatest thing ever", they are far better than "normal" tablets, since they are a regular PC and a tablet.

So far Intel/MS has gained something like 7% tablet sales marketshare with these tablets.

 

[SiliconWars]

The official figures disagree

1.8% (and that includes the Surface RT as well for Microsoft)

 

[OBLAMA2009]

That's my thought too. PCs and notebooks are a more mature market where people are purchasing only to replace one that is too old or broken. Tablets are the new cheap toy. Of COURSE they're gonna sell in huge numbers.

its this simple, the pc industry hasnt given the average person a reason to upgrade. if we all had google fiber then we might have a need for 10 ghz hex cores, but that doesnt seem likely to happen anytime soon

 

[lagokc]

its this simple, the pc industry hasnt given the average person a reason to upgrade. if we all had google fiber then we might have a need for 10 ghz hex cores, but that doesnt seem likely to happen anytime soon

Google fiber wouldn't make me want to upgrade my CPU, it'd make me want to throw more harddrives in my NAS. :whiste:

 

[lopri]

I'm sure tablets will be the greatest thing ever made here if they were Intel-based.

I know, right? Welcome to AT CPU & Overclocking Forum™. :-D



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[Idontcare]

I remember having a 386DX-40 during my later years in high school and off into college. I was teaching myself C++ and x86 ASM in HS. That's what I was using a computer for.

Nowadays, kids just want to YouTube.

My theory on this is that roughly the same percentage of people that "needed" a desktop back in the day, the 1 out of 30-40 folks like yourself who was teaching themselves programming and so on, is roughly the same percentage of folks that need a desktop computer now.

In other words the base level of demand has always been there, then and now, and will be going forward.

What happened in the meantime was a bubble in the demand for desktops which was solely fueled by everyone else who only really wanted a computer for the internet connectivity stuff - email, google, youtube, pic sharing, IM.

All that stuff was the killer app for the desktop market but only because the desktop market existed and had products to sell at the time. Had the mobility offered by today's smartphones and tablet form factors been available 20yrs ago then the entire desktop market revolution would have been sidestepped in my opinion.

In this hypothetical timeline, workstations for the professional would still have happened, and laptops for the professional still would have happened, but the TAM and market volumes would be 1/10th their current volumes.

At least that is how I see it when I look at my family versus myself. As soon as smartphones, tablets (iPads), and the e-readers like Kindle came along, every single one of my family members jumped ship and hasn't looked back.

I used to buy them all desktop upgrades and new builds, every other year. Then it became all the rage to buy laptops instead, not a desktop among them. Now I haven't bought a laptop for a family member in years. Since 2010 or so. But they all have (and really do use) all these other tablet and smartphone form factors.

And here I am, still using desktops and laptops, the 1 in 30, and probably won't ever give it up.

 

[Magic Carpet]

The problem being, Windows RT is rather worthless compared to iOS. Okay, battery life is okay? What of ebooks? Software ecosystem? Applications?

That's heavily dependent on your feature requirement. For me, Windows RT was a better device, all around (I was planning on buying iPad Mini as well). Maybe if it didn't have Microsoft Office, I would have looked elsewhere. That's something AppStore and Android Market don't have (and I don't need the rest of 499,999 apps available there).

Windows RT was DOA. I can't see it having any type of future because it really hasn't improved at all in that respect, I don't see this ever changing.

Future? This wasn't supposed to last me a lifetime to begin with. There is no future in electronics, my friend. You get something for today, whatever works for you and later it's always draw of luck. I will most likely replace it with a faster Microsoft Surface device when it's out. I would like to retain the same feature-set and just get a speed bump. Surface Pro is a joke, I already have a compact x86 tablet (Sony VAIO Duo 11) at home, it's just not as portable and durable as Surface RT (and it's nice to have camera at certain angle).

I'd honestly rather have an android tablet than RT, and I already dislike android (for tablet use) compared to iOS;.

Android is way too fragmented, I was considering it too; that, and the hardware quality wasn't up to my standard, so that was out of question.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

for me personally, tablets still arent fast enough to comfortably web surf

 

[Lonyo]

The official figures disagree

1.8% (and that includes the Surface RT as well for Microsoft)

No. That 1.8% is Microsoft's sales of Microsoft tablets.
My MS tablet? Made by Samsung.
Hint hint.

OS marketshare is supposedly 7.5% RT + 8.
Samsung, Asus, Lenovo, MS, Dell etc all make Windows tablets.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...ed-tablet-shipments-in-q1-2013-204381411.html
This disagrees with IDC's figures for sales marketshare, with 7.5% for Windows vs 3.7% from IDC.

Which is where we come back to... what is a "tablet" and what is a "PC"? Since Windows 8 devices can be both, and is everyone measuring them in the same way?

 

[Hulk]

That's my thought too. PCs and notebooks are a more mature market where people are purchasing only to replace one that is too old or broken. Tablets are the new cheap toy. Of COURSE they're gonna sell in huge numbers.

Exactly.

I don't know why people are so surprised that tablets are outselling PC's and notebooks. PC's and notebooks have been around for 30+ year. Just about everybody has them.

On the other hand tablets are the new cool thing that everyone wants. The bigger question is whether or not they will have the staying power of desktop and mobile PC's.

 

[NTMBK]

A tablet/laptop combi would be ideal for most people. The Windows 8 devices I've played with (in store prodding, no serious testing) seemed very nice, and on the verge of being "good enough" to be a primary device. I think the software tweaks in Windows 8.1 and the next gen chips from Intel and AMD should be good enough to push them over the edge. Netbook weights and portability, with a tablet-res screen and much improved performance? Where do I sign up!

 

[MichaelBarg]

Smartphones are eating away at the desktop/laptop market as well. A lot of basic tasks like checking email, writing short emails, web surfing and watching video work okay on tablets/phones. Most people will still want access to a full computer, but they may not need their own. So a household of 4 may go from 'needing' 4 computers to getting by fine with 2 + smart phones for all and a couple tablets. I think a lot of people on this board seriously underestimate how many people own devices in all three categories and the desktop/laptop is by a huge margin the least used. This is even more of a factor with people in white collar jobs. If they need a real computer they have one on their desk at work.

 

[meloz]

Eventually tablets will also reach the penetration and saturation of ubiquitous desktop, and their sales will also slow down.

I think the real issue is that many companies are betting their future on tablet segment growth continuing ad infinitium. They are in for a rude shock. Apple will survive because they sell an entire ecosystem. Google's Nexus device will survive since it is the rival flagship. Intel will survive as they target high-end tablets running Google's Android.

As for the rest......not looking good. But you won't hear anything about it in media, oh no, it is the usual 'PC is dying' nonsense.

 

[Lonyo]

Eventually tablets will also reach the penetration and saturation of ubiquitous desktop, and their sales will also slow down.

I think the real issue is that many companies are betting their future on tablet segment growth continuing ad infinitium. They are in for a rude shock. Apple will survive because they sell an entire ecosystem. Google's Nexus device will survive since it is the rival flagship. Intel will survive as they target high-end tablets running Google's Android.

As for the rest......not looking good. But you won't hear anything about it in media, oh no, it is the usual 'PC is dying' nonsense.

Most of the WORLD cannot afford Google/Intel/Apple tablets.
That's billions of people who will be buying tablets (yes, seriously, they will).

There is plenty of market for the people who aren't making premium western products, people on forums like these just forget about/ignore them.

Also just because you aren't growing sales doesn't mean your business dies if you have good marketshare/penetration in a large market.
White box sales are massive in places like China and will be in India and Africa going forward. That's 3 billion people right there. And these are people who never had a "PC" computer, using tablets as primary devices.

China apparently has the highest level of tablet penetration, with India second.
That's not because of Intel, Google or Apple.

 

[meloz]

China apparently has the highest level of tablet penetration, with India second.
That's not because of Intel, Google or Apple.

I agree with the broad thurst of your argument, a lot will depend on how Intel price their future Atoms.

And Intel's only going to get started later this year. They have given ARM a head start for sure, thanks to Otenelli and his profit margin obsession. I do not think the high growth rate for tablets is over yet (it will be one day, but not this year), since the devices are still improving rather dramatically with each generation unlike the already refined PC.

Also tablets being a battery-powered mobie device might not have the long life of a desktop PC, so people will replace them in shorter cycles as compared to the conventional desktop.

Intel can still 'win' this. If they want similar domination in tablets as they have in desktop PC, they have the ability. As for the motivation.....let's see what the new CEO does and then judge them by their actions.