Are the PCs all getting a bit old at your office? You're not alone
Bye desktop, bye desk. Hello 'slab and a mat on the floor
Posted in Management, 27th March 2013 17:47 GMT
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Business PC refresh cycles are set to stretch even further, according to IDC analysis - heaping more strain on vendors and channel partners.
This comes against a backdrop of declining global sales of desktops and notebooks, which fell by 4.1 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively in 2012 compared to 2011. No near-term uptick is predicted.
"The pressure on the PC market is significantly increasing and we can see longer replacement cycles coming into effect very soon," said Megha Saini, a box counter at IDC. She added this will "put downward pressure on PC sales".
Traditional computers maker were caught out by the shift in the market to tablets and other portable systems; in 2012 fondleslab shipments grew 78.4 per cent and smartmobes climbed 46.1 per cent. Only Lenovo made ground in the classic PC space.
Most manufacturers arrived either ill-equipped to compete or were incredibly late entrants, giving up ground to Apple and Samsung.
IDC forecasts a five per cent drop in sales of desk-based computers between 2012 and 2017, portable PC growth of at least 19 per cent, tabs soaring 174.5 per cent and smartphones rising 109.9 per cent.
If this proves prophetic, in five years smartphones will account for 67 per cent of internet-connected devices globally, tabs will represent 16 per cent, portables PCs 11 per cent and desktops six per cent.
Meanwhile, Apple closed the gap on unit shipment market leader Samsung in the final quarter of 2012: the iPhone and iPad Mini helped push Apple's market share of "smart connected devices" to 20.3 per cent versus Samsung's 21.2 per cent.
The picture was slightly different in terms of revenues. Apple had a 30.7 per cent share and Samsung bagged 20.4 per cent. ®
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COMMENTS
Congratulations PC makers!
You've finally achieved your goal; Desktops have become a necessary appliance!
Unfortunately, appliances aren't "shiny".
Nobody dumps their old stove, washing machine, etc., just to get the latest model adorned with all the newest bells and whistles, they use it until it breaks, then replace it.
Now here's the part Microsoft doesn't get; When an appliance is finally replaced, people look for one that's like their old one, because *nobody* wants a new stove that forces them to relearn how to boil water!
Re: Fallacy
Absolutely. We are an IT outfit. Updating websites and running SSH doesn't take a lot of grunt. We are 50/50 XP/Kubuntu. When XP is retired next year then why should we be forced to buy new kit to win Win 8 and have to relearn/relicense stuff that is of no discernible benefit?
Going 100% Kubuntu looks easier. Only takes 30 mins to re-load and no more re-activation issues. Wow, MS seems to pushing us that way ...
Fallacy
Traditional computers maker were caught out by the shift in the market to tablets and other portable systems; in 2012 fondleslab shipments grew 78.4 per cent and smartmobes climbed 46.1 per cent.
I don't believe the (negative) correlation implies causation. Portable systems are filling a need that didn't really exist before they did. Desktop replacement cycles have extended because the processing requirements of the business applications that run on these machines have stopped leap-frogging machine resources. This isn't likely to change again.
No push to upgrade business machines anymore
I have two machines here - a 3.2 Ghz quad core desktop that is getting on for 2½ years old now, and an Atom 2700 based ITX machine that is less than 12 months old but let's face it: in terms of performance it is comparable to a regular desktop of perhaps 6 years ago. It is still the Atom that gets by far the most use, simply because it is plenty fast enough for 99% of my use and has the attraction of being considerably quieter. The near silence is something you couldn't have got 6 years ago but for bean counting purposes it's the performance that matters and there simply isn't any need to upgrade machines of that level of performance. If they run Office and a modern web browser that's the most demanding applications covered.
It's long been the gamers driving the PC market from a technology perspective, not business, for whom it is basically the need to run the latest version of Windows that is the usual key driver for upgrades. If you don't want the latest version of Windows, or indeed the current hardware it up to running it, that is an entire hardware upgrade cycle obliterated. When the time does come to upgrade whatever low end systems are bought are going to be so far in excess of anything actually needed, again, thanks to the gamers, that they'll be good for five or six years at least. The days of three year replacement cycles are firmly behind us.
Re: Congratulations PC makers!
Yep, why should I replace all of these Core2 and Core2Duo machines I have here with new ones? It's not like the users are going to notice significant improvements in Word and Outlook.
What I WILL do is replace the spinning iron inside them with SSDs, which makes a measurable difference, and costs a LOT less than all new PCs. Maybe a memory upgrade here and there too.
The new Office Garage series:
