PC Sales down 14% in first quarter YoY

[jpiniero]

Lenovo was flat worldwide; everyone else was down quite a bit. This is surely more evidence that people don't want or need a new PC, and of course they don't want Windows 8 either. And it's only going to get worse as the cheap smartphones and tablets roll in.

"At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market," said Bob O'Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, Clients and Displays. "While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices. Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market."

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24065413#.UWXcTHfC58E

 

[386user]

yes i was reading an article in a similar vein just now

intel must be crazy thinking ultrabooks are due for mass adoption with haswell

 

[meloz]

The reasons could be many:

1. Haswell's impending launch. The entire PC industry revolves around new Intel CPU launches, like it or not. Car models also see a fall in sales when an all new generation is about to be launched.

2. Windows 8 is despised by common consumers as well as business.

3. The time between upgrades is increasing for most consumers. And not enough new consumers from developing and poorer nations are being added into the global pool.

4. Economic insecurity. People would rather save or invest their cash than 'splurge' on new PC when existing 1-5 year old PC is adequate for browsing, consuming audio-video media, office work and casual gaming.

So no major cause for alarm as yet. However, if the market continues to shrink quarter-after-quarter for the entire year even after Haswell's launch, Intel might just have to learn to live with less than 50% profit margin. Poor them.

 

[giantpandaman2]

I don't see why anyone is alarmed about the PC market, it's just becoming more of a niche product.

In the past:

If you wanted to connect to the internet. You needed a PC.

Write a document in word. You needed a PC.

Do shopping on the net. You needed a PC.

Be productive/do research. You needed a PC.

Obviously some of these activities are just more convenient or cheaper to do with things other than a PC. Hence the drop in demand. The market is simply aligning itself with the most efficient way to do certain things.

Yet, when it comes to productivity, nothing trumps the PC. That's where the PC excels, and that's where it will continue to thrive. Using a full blown PC for media consumption, information, etc. will continue to become less and less prevalent. Nothing MS, Intel, or anyone else can do to stem that tide.

 

[2timer]

The reasons could be many:

1. Haswell's impending launch. The entire PC industry revolves around new Intel CPU launches, like it or not. Car models also see a fall in sales when an all new generation is about to be launched.

So no major cause for alarm as yet. However, if the market continues to shrink quarter-after-quarter for the entire year even after Haswell's launch, Intel might just have to learn to live with less than 50% profit margin. Poor them.

You think PC sales are down 14% because of waiting on Haswell?

Hahahahaha. That's funny. Common consumers don't give a damn about CPU launches.

By the way, some threads ago somebody told me that PC sales were stagnant, not shrinking. Guess this proves them wrong.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Windows 8 is so bad most OEMs stopped ship it to corporarte users.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Windows 8 is so bad most OEMs stopped ship it to corporarte users.

This is true. No-one wants a new PC with Windows 8, unless it's a touch-enabled laptop.

It's the albatross that's dragging down the entire PC market.

 

[postmortemIA]

Only reason somebody would get windows 8 PC is that they are dirt cheap. They then regret the purchase when it boots up first time.
However, if consumer has any working PC, chances are that they're thinking my old PC > windows 8. and this is mass fail on Microsoft for not figuring that they can't just shove it into us. We already have Windows PCs that work.

 

[nenforcer]

All of the PC makers just need to include a touch screen 120Hz IPS LED LCD monitor with every new Windows 8 PC sale and the sales will pick right up.

 

[exar333]

I think it's more of a 'good enough' scenario. Most PCs today are 'good enough' for most users. Almost any PC sold in the last 5-6 years (C2D or PhII) with 4GB RAM is plenty for almost any application. HDD capacity has stagnated, and there is very little getting people excited to buy a new PC.

Windows 7 was the single bright spot IMHO or PCs, and MS has moved-on to a more controversial OS with Win8.

I really like W7, and have no plans to move to Win8 anytime soon. Might be interested if I switched to a tablet/laptop for a lot of use, but not planning on that anytime soon.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Why do people blame Windows 8 for this? PC sales have been flat for some time now.

It's to do with lots of reasons imo

- Global recession

- Computers have been "good enough" for years now. Even a 2007 era PC is more than ample for most people.

- Tablets/smartphones eating into the market

- Work places are most likely to give staff laptops, hence the need for a pc at home is negated (just use the work laptop)

Blaming the software is ridiculous.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I see two major reasons. First is the longer replacement cycle because older PCs are adequate for a longer period of time.

Second, is the high price of ultrabooks and the segmentation of laptops into too expensive ultrabooks and really cheap and poor quality old style laptops.

Corporate users may resist win 8 because they don't want to retrain their users, but if you really need a PC, I cant see not buying one because of win 8. For laptops, if you have a touch screen, it seems like a major improvement.

I work at a major university and nearly every student has a laptop, and I see very few tablets. Why? Because they have to actually do useful work on it. For our large clinical study, PCs are indispensable because we use access for the data base, all the analytical equipment is controlled by PCs, and the data is stored and analyzed on PCs.

 

[pmv]

Why do people blame Windows 8 for this? PC sales have been flat for some time now.

It's to do with lots of reasons imo

- Global recession

- Computers have been "good enough" for years now. Even a 2007 era PC is more than ample for most people.

- Tablets/smartphones eating into the market

- Work places are most likely to give staff laptops, hence the need for a pc at home is negated (just use the work laptop)

Blaming the software is ridiculous.

I agree those first three are the main reasons, and I suspect most of all its the third (dunno about the 4th, only a small minority work in those kind of workplaces).

I don't think windows 8 has helped matters though. "People waiting for the next CPU" I think is a ridiculous explanation, most consumers have never heard of 'Haswell' (and besides, there have always been next cpus to wait for).

Personally, my PC isn't really 'good enough', but money is tight and prices have obstinately refused to drop for a long time now - probably because of both the bad economy and everyone else turning to smartphones.

There's a bit of a feedback there - as the market for PCs declines, the pressure for technological progress and competition also stagnates, making the PC market unexciting even for those die-hards who don't want a tablet.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Using a full blown PC for media consumption, information, etc. will continue to become less and less prevalent. Nothing MS, Intel, or anyone else can do to stem that tide.

Exactly.

The days of people buying a new PC because they feel they need to to stay current are long gone. If you have a PC now, unless it breaks it is the last computer most people will ever need to buy. The trend towards tablet and other small form factor devices is really quite unbelievable, but people don't want to mess with a PC, they just want their hardware to work. Get device, buy a few apps, it does what they want with almost no effort or knowledge. Device gets outdated or broken they get another one.

The future is much more about software infrastructure and the "easy click" experience as much as it is about the hardware.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

I agree with others that the biggest factor here is that there aren't compelling reasons to upgrade.

I'm still using a Nehalem-class machine, and was planning to upgrade with Haswell, but I simply don't see the benefit justifying the cost.

 

[SPBHM]

what's the problem with Windows 8?
it has been running on 2 of my PCs flawlessly for a long time, now, I don't believe windows 8 really delivers a lot more for users without touch screen, but I also can't see where it's really worse!? it's all about the start menu? really?
I can jump from Windows 98 to 7 to 8 at any time and have no big difficulties operating the UI, you can almost completely avoid "metro" and use it just as your "search start menu" from windows 7... I honestly don't see a justification to avoid a new PC only because it comes with Windows 8, if only it was something like Windows RT I would completely understand (locked, poor compatibility).

 

[AnandThenMan]

what's the problem with Windows 8?

You basically said it yourself.

...you can almost completely avoid "metro" and use it just as your "search start menu" from windows 7...

Windows 8 offers some nice speed improvements/lower resource hungry. But the interface design is jarring and honestly just stupid. Win8 can't decide if it's a desktop or touch OS, and it's not particularly good at either.

 

[Wall Street]

1. Haswell's impending launch. The entire PC industry revolves around new Intel CPU launches, like it or not. Car models also see a fall in sales when an all new generation is about to be launched.

This is really not a big impact. In the real world, the core i3/i5/i7 branding is working and few users have any clue if their box is Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge or Nehalem.

2. Windows 8 is despised by common consumers as well as business.

This is very much true. Even when a Windows 7 PC is available from some vendors, it seems like it takes weeks to build, install and ship while Windows 8 PCs are preloaded and ready to ship immediately. In retail shops like Best Buy it is almost all 8.

3. The time between upgrades is increasing for most consumers. And not enough new consumers from developing and poorer nations are being added into the global pool.

Very true. For Netflix/Facebook/GMail/Office usage a lot of Core 2 Duos are still going strong. Meanwhile there are fewer Pentium 4 boxes left to replace.

4. Economic insecurity. People would rather save or invest their cash than 'splurge' on new PC when existing 1-5 year old PC is adequate for browsing, consuming audio-video media, office work and casual gaming.

I would say that the economy is recovering relative to last year so it doesn't explain the Y-o-Y number.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Exactly.

The days of people buying a new PC because they feel they need to to stay current are long gone. If you have a PC now, unless it breaks it is the last computer most people will ever need to buy. The trend towards tablet and other small form factor devices is really quite unbelievable, but people don't want to mess with a PC, they just want their hardware to work. Get device, buy a few apps, it does what they want with almost no effort or knowledge. Device gets outdated or broken they get another one.

The future is much more about software infrastructure and the "easy click" experience as much as it is about the hardware.

True that tablets are popular, "unbelievably" so to me also. Personally, I just dont get it. I guarantee you that my PC works infinitely better than my tablet. You can actually use a useful input device. You can actually connect to a wireless router without having a perfect signal, and when you connect, you can actually load a page without wondering if it will time out before loading. And I can actually control what I do with my files because there is an OS that allows me to without rooting it. In the future, I will consider a smartphone, laptop or desktop, but it would take a great deal to ever make me consider a tablet again.

 

[guskline]

I'm using Windows 8 on my 3 rigs. I paid an extra $5/rig for Start8. Problem solved AND I have the newest OS.

 

[s44]

2. Windows 8 is despised by common consumers as well as business.

3. The time between upgrades is increasing for most consumers. And not enough new consumers from developing and poorer nations are being added into the global pool.

4. Economic insecurity. People would rather save or invest their cash than 'splurge' on new PC when existing 1-5 year old PC is adequate for browsing, consuming audio-video media, office work and casual gaming.

it's just becoming more of a niche product.

It's all of the above.

I really don't think posters here, used to customizing not only the software but the hardware, understand how jarring and unwelcoming casual users find the totally changed W8 front end. Searching for and installing a Stardock app to revert the experience is *not* the first thing that comes to mind. Avoiding it altogether is rather more likely.

MS changed Windows not for consumer benefit but for their own business plans going forward. It's not going to help them.

And I can actually control what I do with my files because there is an OS that allows me to without rooting it.

Translation: you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[gipper53]

I think it's more of a 'good enough' scenario. Most PCs today are 'good enough' for most users. Almost any PC sold in the last 5-6 years (C2D or PhII) with 4GB RAM is plenty for almost any application. HDD capacity has stagnated, and there is very little getting people excited to buy a new PC.

Absolutely agree. My in-laws are a prime example of this. They are running a 4+ year old Compaq with an Athlon II, 3gb, integrated graphics and 320GB HD on Vista 32. For web surfing, word docs, saving/printing their digital photos the computer does absolutely fine. The nieces/nephews play some basic games on it occassionally. It's still a surprisingly snappy machine for these tasks. They will have no reason to upgrade for several years.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I'm using Windows 8 on my 3 rigs. I paid an extra $5/rig for Start8. Problem solved AND I have the newest OS.

It's a good solution no doubt. BUT, I find is amusing that to get Win8 to a usable state (for many at least) you have to essentially remove the main functionality that is supposed to differentiate Win8 from Win7. Let's face it, MS could have easily put the speed improvements into 7. Really there should be two versions, dedicated 8 for tablets and the like, dedicated for desktops. But MS wants to move people away from you installing software and push you into their store.

 

[frozentundra123456]

It's a good solution no doubt. BUT, I find is amusing that to get Win8 to a usable state (for many at least) you have to essentially remove the main functionality that is supposed to differentiate Win8 from Win7. Let's face it, MS could have easily put the speed improvements into 7. Really there should be two versions, dedicated 8 for tablets and the like, dedicated for desktops. But MS wants to move people away from you installing software and push you into their store.

They didnt even need two versions. All they needed was to leave the start button when you switch to the conventional desktop. Would have been nice to have a simple command to tell which to boot to, but even that would not have been necessary, one touch and you are in the conventional desktop. It is just that they took away something that is very usable for no reason.

 

[s44]

But MS wants to move people away from you installing software and push you into their store.

Correct. MS doesn't seem to understand that their platform won *because* it was open at the user level.

Gaming without Windows was once unthinkable; now not only is Valve publicly floating a future on Linux, but a large part of the market wants it to happen. This is just one of many rather huge reactions against the MS move.