25% Of PC Owners May Switch To Other Devices

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Twenty-five percent of computer owners say they may not replace their PC when it becomes unusable? Something tells me those aren't "real" PC owners in the first place. ;)

Survey participants were asked: " Many people are questioning whether they need a personal computer given all the things they can do on their smartphones and tablets. When your current personal computer becomes unusable, how likely are you to replace it with another personal computer?" In response, 4 percent of users said they definitely will not replace their personal computer with another PC, 6 percent said they probably will not, and 15 percent said they might or might not replace it.
Click to expand...
 
Those are people like my 73 year old mother who can barely grasp the concept of a PC to begin with.
 
I'll rebuild another, but I can pretty much assume my wife, parents and brother could care less about having one or not. Nothing wrong with it, most PCs are overkill for what people do on them anyways.
 
I know some people that will and others that won't. My friend might, she never turns on her desktop (XP), and uses her laptop (Vista) all the time. My cousin who has his own business uses his desktop everyday along with a laptop. I'll keep upgrading/building my PC's.

I think that 25% number should be higher.
 
This shouldn't really surprise anyone. Infact, I'm amazed the number isn't higher to be honest. The majority of users aren't enthusiests, they just want something that they can use to browse the internet, send/recieve email, print documents and maybe some casual video games and light duty 'work'. Add to that how inexpensive (even the most expensive brand starts at 500), light weight and battery efficient tablets are... it doesn't make sense to get a desktop/laptop for a lot of people.
 
This doesn't surprise me. I long ago replaced my less savvy family members pc's with iPads. All they do is email and Facebook and now they don't call to harass me when they deleted something they shouldn't have.

Tablet = perfect for the terminally pc illiterate.
 
Wait...who are these PC owners, cause I sure as hell can't do much on a tablet. Not even a Win 8 Pro tablet.
 
"With multiple responses possible, other reasons cited for adopting a tablet-only lifestyle are: comfort (26 percent), cheaper (22 percent), desire for apps (19 percent), greater functionality (19 percent), and "PCs take too long to boot up" (15 percent)."

I love that... hahaha
 
For people that don't have any substantial amount of data ... sure, get rid of the thing. For anyone that has any substantial amount of data, be it photos, documents, video, and so on? Yeah, you're going to need something to store and manipulate that data. You could manage to do it on a tablet with an NAS but who, that could set that up, is going to be satisfied with clumsily dealing with it that way?

I've been pondering ditching my laptop, since I game on consoles right now, and using a Win8Pro tablet but I'm not sure if that's the right route to go. Will see once more Win8Pro tablets come out. Need something I can dock easily to a big monitor/keyboard/mouse setup. Currently, they mostly seem to be trying to replicate netbooks so couple a keyboard with most of them. I don't want a netbook, I want an i5 I can dock and switch to a normal keyboard/monitor setup when I want to.

If that never pans out I'll be getting another android tablet or win8RT tablet and buying a small form factor PC.
 
While ill always have a nice powerful desktop to be truly productive (and because I love building them and tweaking them), I dont honestly plan on getting another laptop that could also be called a portable desktop replacement. My next mobile solution needs to be portable and non-intrusive on my backpack space.
 
Ididar said:
For people that don't have any substantial amount of data ... sure, get rid of the thing. For anyone that has any substantial amount of data, be it photos, documents, video, and so on? Yeah, you're going to need something to store and manipulate that data. You could manage to do it on a tablet with an NAS but who, that could set that up, is going to be satisfied with clumsily dealing with it that way?

I've been pondering ditching my laptop, since I game on consoles right now, and using a Win8Pro tablet but I'm not sure if that's the right route to go. Will see once more Win8Pro tablets come out. Need something I can dock easily to a big monitor/keyboard/mouse setup. Currently, they mostly seem to be trying to replicate netbooks so couple a keyboard with most of them. I don't want a netbook, I want an i5 I can dock and switch to a normal keyboard/monitor setup when I want to.

If that never pans out I'll be getting another android tablet or win8RT tablet and buying a small form factor PC.
Click to expand...

I've been waiting for the Acer W700 to come into stock. The i5 model with 128 gig SSD, has been out of stock since it was released. They must have made only like 10 of them or something.

It comes with a dock and bluetooth keyboard. The dock has 3 USB ports and you still have access to the micro-HDMI port, while it's docked.
 
This is a good thing. Most people are either too dumb or not interested in the complexities of general purpose computing. They want the low hanging fruit of what is possible with tehcnology: email, facebook and farmville. Leave the PC's to the enthusiasts.
 
No no, we want them to keep buying PCs, so the costs stay low. If companies stop mass producing the stuff, the prices are bound to go up. Also, what is Best Buy gonna do? Who are they gonna charge $20 to install a program?
 
Unless 25% of PC buyers never turned their PC on for anything but facebook and its ilk, I don't believe that number. Of course a good portion of PC buyers buying a PC was a mistake because they never turn on their PC and don't know even know what an Smartphone is. So those have always existed.
 
Good for them. It's both sad and relieving. Sad as PC components are no doubt becoming more niche by the hour, which no doubt would drive prices up for us. Relieving as we don't really need those people to use PCs for anything else :D
 
jpm100 said:
Unless 25% of PC buyers never turned their PC on for anything but facebook and its ilk, I don't believe that number. Of course a good portion of PC buyers buying a PC was a mistake because they never turn on their PC and don't know even know what an Smartphone is. So those have always existed.
Click to expand...

I would of expected the number to be far higher. If you think lower then you severely underestimate the number of people who only use their pc for facebook and email and extremely basic tasks.
 
These are people who over-estimate the usefulness of Tablets and Smartphones. If they try to go without, they will eventually realise the need for a PC, even for a casual user, is very present. Also, they may not end up getting a PC at home, but those will likely have one at work they use for personal purposes.
 
Stiletto said:
Good. 25% less people asking me to fix it.
Click to expand...

... and higher prices, less competition and a smaller selection for the rest of us.

It is a natural transition, though. Once your PC has everything you're asking it to do, you'll then want to take it with you everywhere. Before even laptops were thought of as a supplementary computing device that wasn't capable of what a desktop does but today most PCs sold are laptops. The next step downward is a tablet
 
TMCM said:
"With multiple responses possible, other reasons cited for adopting a tablet-only lifestyle are: comfort (26 percent), cheaper (22 percent), desire for apps (19 percent), greater functionality (19 percent), and "PCs take too long to boot up" (15 percent)."

I love that... hahaha
Click to expand...

Haha... those 3 are from people who are totally computer inept. Hell.. I'd even counter the first two, you can get a computer for cheaper than a tablet half the time and mod it over time. And honestly, it's not comfy to carry around a tablet forever.

So hmm.. buy a tablet, upgrade every year and pay an increasingly unfriendly data plan or buy a computer, mod as you need for as long as you feel it's necessary, pay a pretty consistent internet bill.
 
Maplehamwich said:
These are people who over-estimate the usefulness of Tablets and Smartphones. If they try to go without, they will eventually realise the need for a PC, even for a casual user, is very present. Also, they may not end up getting a PC at home, but those will likely have one at work they use for personal purposes.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Almost everything that you can do on a PC you can also do on a tablet.

3 years ago, I might of agreed.... but these days theres an 'app' and hardware accessories for almost anything you'd ever want to do. Hell, you can even do 3D modeling/CAD work, 1080p video editing and audio production on tablets these days.
 
What is a "real PC owner"? A person who does not merely imagine he or she owns a PC?
 
Amazed by the number of folks here that feel that unless you need three graphics cards, an i7 and don't play BF3 or then somehow you know anything about computers and are therefore an imbecile.

In the real world there are domestic and business customers.

For domestic I see the folks that bought a PC say 6+ years ago and no longer want to be relegated to the study to use the web. They want to sit in the living room or kitchen instead. They don't play games so for them the choice isn't another PC, its either a laptop (if they want to use Office to any degree or like a keyboard) or a tablet. Most just want a further extension of what they do on their smartphone.

For small to medium business its a full mix. They still want PCs for the staff that sit in the office all day and are not expected to work at home or on the move. The rest just want laptops but lighter smaller ones. A few want tablets but then when fully investigated it turns out that many of the applications they want to use are not available or they then don't tie back in at base with the other PCs and laptops. It will come though and some can use them just fine already.

I'd say about 1 in 20 customers plays games on their PC to any degree. It's a very small number.

Bottom line is that I now get in very few desktop PCs for domestic customers, maybe a handful a year.

Usually its a $600 laptop.
 
Just another cycle. When another big app comes out and a tablet or other portable device can't run it, it'll be PC time again.
 
Maplehamwich said:
These are people who over-estimate the usefulness of Tablets and Smartphones. If they try to go without, they will eventually realise the need for a PC, even for a casual user, is very present. Also, they may not end up getting a PC at home, but those will likely have one at work they use for personal purposes.
Click to expand...

This is someone who over-estimates what 75% of PC users do with their machines. 75% can easily use something else that costs half as much. If 2/3 of the users keep using PCs out of pure inertia (or [H]ard types keep administering them), consider yourselves lucky.

In the 1980s, mainframe users laughed at those wimpy PCs and people who thought they could be used for computing. Mainframes still exist, but the dinosaur pens are buried pretty deep.
 
Wumpus said:
This is someone who over-estimates what 75% of PC users do with their machines. 75% can easily use something else that costs half as much. If 2/3 of the users keep using PCs out of pure inertia (or [H]ard types keep administering them), consider yourselves lucky.

In the 1980s, mainframe users laughed at those wimpy PCs and people who thought they could be used for computing. Mainframes still exist, but the dinosaur pens are buried pretty deep.
Click to expand...

Yep a lot of big box user denial going on here.

As for the 'big power app' that we've all been waiting for that will bring the masses back to wanting large power hungry boxes...well...still waiting.

Not going to happen. It was game over as soon as dual cores came out middle of last decade. From that moment on most folks were sorted processing power wise.
 
Whatever that "big app" is, it's going to have a fixed-function unit that's going to be tiny, fit on an ARM SoC, and do the job just as well as the fixed-function unit on your desktop. A perfect example of this is a 1080p decoder or QuickSync. Video transcoding/decoding was thought to be the next "big app" that requires more CPU horsepower, but instead we got QuickSync, GPUs and more careful development work.

A vast majority of development is now done on Java and targeted at the mobile sector and cloud computing handles a lot of back end stuff and storage. If you're waiting for a "big app" on your local Windows desktop you're going to be waiting a long long time.
 
krotch said:
I've been waiting for the Acer W700 to come into stock. The i5 model with 128 gig SSD, has been out of stock since it was released. They must have made only like 10 of them or something.

It comes with a dock and bluetooth keyboard. The dock has 3 USB ports and you still have access to the micro-HDMI port, while it's docked.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've looked at that and it is probably the only viable solution right now. But, they really should have had an HDMI port on the dock. Some people have worked around it by doing the USB to VGA converter thing.
 
dr.stevil said:
I disagree. Almost everything that you can do on a PC you can also do on a tablet.

3 years ago, I might of agreed.... but these days theres an 'app' and hardware accessories for almost anything you'd ever want to do. Hell, you can even do 3D modeling/CAD work, 1080p video editing and audio production on tablets these days.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but anyone trying to do 3D modeling or serious CAD work on a tablet is just insanely stupid. You can dick around playing at that kind of work on a tablet (I have the apps installed) but you can't actually do productive 3D modeling or CAD work on a tablet.
 
To be honest there are people I would rather give another device to than a PC. Especially if you can get similar functionality from that alternative device.
 
For leisure activities and some niche work capabilities tablets are great, for everything else there's a real computer.

I personally have two iPads, two laptops, a desktop, and a NAS operational at my house. Each has a specific capability that isn't easily replicated on another. For those that are not "Power Users" I can easily see them getting rid of the desktop or laptop and using tablets for almost everything.
 
These are the same people who replace thier computer every couple years because it's "full" or it's "slow".
They want a tablet becasue it's the trendy thing to use, and they will be complaining about it being "full" or "slow" even faster.
 
Comapnies don't really offer desktops anymore. Just laptops because they know a) they're more expensive, and b) don't last as long and aren't "user servicable". Tablets are even more expensive for what they are and even less user servicable and less longer lasting...
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I would of expected the number to be far higher. If you think lower then you severely underestimate the number of people who only use their pc for facebook and email and extremely basic tasks.
Click to expand...
I think you're confusing, mostly, with only.

All but a very strange few of those would ever e-file their taxes on a smartphone. Its possible but it would be painful if you did anything more than a 1040EZ. State taxes would be a nightmare.
 
This is smart.

There are many people that do nothing but upload pics from their phone to facebook unedited, browse the web, and type an email now and then.

You don't need a full-fledged complicated computer for that.

That said, considering the technological boom in developing countries and the growth in general of the worldwide population, there will still be a TON of demand for multi-functional personal computers for years and years to come.
 
Gaming and graphic design... Otherwise I wouldn't bother replacing it either, email and facebook is easier on a phone.
 
Largely because I am a tech junkie, I have a desktop, laptop, and 2 tablets. The laptop never gets turned on mostly because it is quite old, the 2 tablets I use when I want to browse the web while watching TV or when traveling. Thats pretty much it. Browsing the web/reading email/etc. is just a superior experience on the desktop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top