PC Sales Suffering "Longest Decline" in History

PC sales are experiencing the longest sales decline in their history according to the latest figures.

[zeal0us]

I blame Windows 8 that and the rise of tablets and smartphones.

[wishingW3L]

Me too. I'm pretty sure it's because of Windows 8 and because the other options to it are weak. You either fork a couple of thousand dollars for a MAC or use crappy Linux but then most of your programs will not even work and you'll be living your life by hunting down generic equivalents to Visual Studio, MS Office, etc.

And this is them monopolies because of no real competition to Windows.

[Testfire]

It's smartphones and tablets period. Most people used PCs for only the internet and the occasional essay. Now with smartphones and tablets we can have faster, better options than booting up the PC to get the info we need. If I want to check my bank account, sell/buy something on Ebay or Amazon my smartphone does the job faster and better than a PC. If my child needs to type an essay I'll boot up my decade old PC and it's done. There is absolutely no need to upgrade old PCs for the average consumer who won't be running programs other than Word, Excel, etc.

[Muerte2494]

No, no, and no guys. I'm a console guy but even I know that it's because people are building their own instead of purchasing them. For one, it's a hell of a lot cheaper to build your own. You make sure you get exactly what you want it is reason No.2. Most PC gamers upgrade their rigs, usually, every two years. We all know Windows 8 blows, because they over-complicated something that didn't need to be (Same with Xbox One).

When it comes to general purpose, yes, tablets and smartphones are preferred.

[TheoreticalParticle]

I just built one 9 months ago, and when I built mine, 4 of my coworkers built theirs.

I know that's anecdotal and not "data", but every time they sound the death knell for PCs, it makes me laugh.

Steam Sales don't break the storefront because there are too few PC owners out there.

[Bonerboy]

I completely agree with you. I just finished ordering the final bits for my soon to be amazing rig...and for a lot less than one of those overpriced premade boxes of cheap shit. Yet another limp wristed "death of the pc" article

[Testfire]

It's not talking about "gaming PCs", just PCs in general. This has nothing to do with gaming rigs. Your comment is irrelevant to the facts.

[Muerte2494]

@Testfire,

PC sales are down because PC gamers are building their own PCs. Casuals are using tablets and smartphones. If you can't see the relevance then you don't need to be in this thread.

[black0o]

@Muer gaming PC are 0.5% from the total sells .. there's more thn 1.7 billion PC user WW, so @testfire is right

[Soplox]

Who was the first to introduce the tablets & smartphones we know today? Apple!

Blame Apple!

[Crazyglues]

Windows 8 is a small part of it, but what's really killing PC's are tablets - today buying a really big and heavy computer has changed to just get an iPad..

Only the hardcore are still buying computers.. the causal user has just decided to buy an iPad for their computer needs..

[Prcko]

tablets and smartphones yep

[KingWilly105]

Yeah, Windows 8 really slowed down buying computers; and the rise of tablets is not helping.

[modesign]

mobile devices is killing the pc paperweights.

[sorane]

haha obvious jealousy

[tigertron]

I've never made my own PC before, but I'm seriously considering it when it's time for me to upgrade.

[Bonerboy]

Yes! Do it yourself! My bro always made mine for me but I've decided to make my own and I've just ordered everything I need. Check out multiple components and mutiple reviews for each, and for compatibility >(mostly mobo and cpu) and such. Building your own is pretty straight forward after a bit of research. Not to mention getting the exact parts you want. It feels pretty good knowing you have the best parts available that suit your budget. !!!Research!!! You will be surprised that you dont need the newest most expensive components either. A lot of these guys out there make this huge gaming rig with a bunch of crap that isnt even utilized (like 16 or 32 gb of ram, or an i7 over an i5 for gaming) More does NOT always mean better or faster. Again, RESEARCH and you wont be wasting your money! Prices can vary wildly so dig around and not just on those stupid "shopbot" search engines either. The best deals are sometimes hidden away on some random site(I saved at least $50 digging around.) and there are always random sales so dont buy right away. If it isnt on sale today it will be soon. It would have cost me literally hundeds of dollars more if I had some company piece together the same rig and most of the time they didnt have the better parts I wanted to include in my build. Instead they offered crappier parts for more money, so just more reasons to avoid these pc builders.
I flipped around on many dif parts but finally narrowed it down and Im more than satisfied with my decisions. I will have a kickass gaming rig at a fraction of the price of any premade and with no compromises as I KNOW whats inside. It takes time but sure is worth it, especially from a financial aspect. All of those premades IMO (and after doing a ton of research) are lacking in certain if not mutiple areas be it cheap ram or some other sub par hardware. Then on top of it all, paying a ridiculous premium for the company to slap some pointless brand name sticker on the case, and to plug in a couple of silly leds here and there, and for some schlub to tighten a few screws and plug in a few cables? I say Fuck That! Its easy stuff. Build it how YOU want and you wont be disappointed I guarantee you, and more importantly, you KNOW you are getting every pennies worth and aren't getting ripped off.

[Bonerboy]

I upgraded my current rig for around 12-1300 Cdn. (everything but case, disc drives and HDD) If you want to know what I bought, PM me and I'll send you a list. Depending on your budget and what you need to upgrade, it might help point you to a few (IMO) decent, and heavily researched upgrade options.

[Clover904]

Casual users are shifting to tablets and smartphones. PC enthusiasts are buying parts, not PCs. I don't see this trend ending anytime soon.

[Giru017]

My thoughts exactly. I don't see AMD or Nvidia, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, etc suffering from lack of sales... Built PC (laptop or *shudder* netbook) manufacturers such as Dell or HP should be worried however. They sell overpriced PC's with shoddy parts to users who don't know anything, it's no wonder smartphones, tablets and Mac's easily took over the market!

"Do you want to upgrade your RAM from 4GB to 8GB? $39.99 extra"
And they don't even tell you what kind of RAM you're getting, what brand, nothing! (crappy 1033 RAM).
Not to mention all the bloatware and "warranty" which only works with them and usually always involves the solution "WE NEED TO FORMAT IT, SORRY"

[FlyingFoxy]

You simply cannot kill the PC, sure there's less people that build/own gaming PC's in favor of tablets or whatever.. but there is nothing like a building a PC yourself, it's not that expensive.. has tons of games and can do way more than any console.

I think the misconception is that the online of games would be empty, simply not true.. many multiplayer games are thriving, even years old ones.

Tablets are not much good for proper games anyway, just good for a quick blast.

I see articles of PC sales declining, and PC gaming dying and never take much notice of them.

[JBSleek]

This has nothing to do with gaming and everything to do with there is no need for a PC if you are casual nom gamer.

[JBSleek]

There is no need for a PC if all you do is web browse facebook and do light gaming.

[Ogygian]

Tablets are great, but they are not a replacement for desktop pc's; only laptops.
I have an ipad, and enjoy artsy indie games on it, but it's no good for large detailed games, and even Deus Ex: the fall is limited by the nature of the machine.
The three ways I'd improve a tablet are better input, a much, much larger screen, and far better graphics, which basically turns it into a desktop.
Laptops will largely die within the next five years, replaced by various tablets, but the hardcore gaming experience offered by a console or desktop is never going to be replaced by tablets due to their very nature.

[WeAreLegion]

I don't think they'll die. I think we'll see the Ultrabook become the top purchase. It's the best of both worlds. (Detachable keyboard, of course)

[Ogygian]

I suppose the Ultrabook could be considered a laptop as well as a tablet. It'll definitely dominate the vast majority of private purchases for business use, given the absolute necessity of a keyboard and word processing, with iOS and Android being the choice for casual and budget (in Android's case) users.

[Dogswithguns]

My PC in my room calling, play me, play me.. in my mind I said, maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow..

[WeAreLegion]

What people use/need a PC for:

- Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- Typing up papers, Excel sheets, etc. for school
- Picture/video editing

All of this is possible on a tablet/phone now. Why would people buy PC's?

[modesign]

you forgot internet porn. lol

[danthebios]

Owning a pc means yearly upgrade so some just stick upgrading instead of buying new unless a new chip is on da duuuummmmm,pow.

[thebudgetgamer]

Ha!

[PSN-JeRzYzFyNeSt]

but PC is the best and always will be? lol foh
Consoles> pc

[seanpitt23]

Not surprising to me to be honest.

[Faztkiller]

They just are not needed as much anymore. I rarely turn my pc I just built on anymore only reason I do is to play the occasional game. Do most of my stuff on my phone.

[kevnb]

pcs last longer now. even my midrange gaming pc has been good enough for 4 years. most games max settings 40-60 fps (depends on game).

[Obamanationn]

Cellphones / Smart Devices / Windows 8 Being garbage / hopefully this drives down the prices of more hardware vendors and forces them to bring their A game , consoles are very close to PC's now in power needs to be a bigger bridge to get ppl to make hardware changes

[Str8Chaos74]

"consoles are very close to PC's now in power"

Um no, not even close.

[zme-ul]

depends to what config you compare that power with

2-3 years time, a PC might need an upgrade, a console won't