Give Up The PC? Get Real!

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I like the way this guy thinks. :cool:

My main PC rocks an Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3770K CPU (4 x 3.50GHz), 24GB of ram, and 8TB of disk space. Yes, that’s eight terabytes. I’m currently using just under 5TB. I have two 24-inch screens. The thought that I could swap my PC for a tablet is laughable.
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I agree entirely. I would never trade my ability to have major monitor real estate like I do with my desktop computer, it would kill my productivity.
 
On top of actually being able to do meaningful tasks that my computer has the computing power to do.

Sorry for the double post, no edit.
 
While that's true of a small portion of the population that tends to congregate here (and on other forums and tech sites), is it true for the vast majority of the market? I doubt that. They're quite fine with buying a shiny new gadget every two years while their desktop sits relegated to closet duties.
 
Meh, the author's just another guy who thinks tablets are out to replace PC instead of supplementing it.
 
A lot of businesses leverage multiple monitors in productivity. How do you think people are going to respond when they only get a tablet, and then later decide they want an additional monitor? I suspect that is going to go over _so_ well.


pelo said:
While that's true of a small portion of the population that tends to congregate here (and on other forums and tech sites), is it true for the vast majority of the market? I doubt that. They're quite fine with buying a shiny new gadget every two years while their desktop sits relegated to closet duties.
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lol, the only thing I think is absurd about the article is he says "Yes, that’s eight terabytes." like that would impress anyone...

Wasn't is gates who said no one would need more then 350mb? or something like that
 
PCs won't be killed by tablets anymore than mainframes were killed by servers ... that doesn't mean they will ever be the dominant medium again ... I am certainly in the PC camp and always will be at some level ... I also have a foot in the other camps:

Desktop PC - my primary gaming platform, also used for light surfing and email (currently used with a single 27" 2560x1440 monitor)
Laptop PC - my work device, used for using MS Office, email, and any general work activities (used with laptop screen while traveling and dual screens via dock at the office; a 24" 1920x1200 and 22" 1680x1050)
Smartphone - my personal phone (an iPhone 4S)
tablet - my personal tablet (used primarily for couch surfing and when I am on airplanes to read mags and play games; an iPad 2)
my only other media device is a Roku used for my online streaming

I don't feel a burning need to replace any of these with one of the others. If you look at the longer term of computing where we will likely end up (eventually) is something like this:

Home Server/PC - for power computing (probably interfaced through the TV eventually)
Tablet or Laptop - for mobile computing or mobile interface with the home server/pc
Smartphone or Phablet - for ultra portable computing needs

That's my take anyway :)
 
BloodyIron said:
A lot of businesses leverage multiple monitors in productivity. How do you think people are going to respond when they only get a tablet, and then later decide they want an additional monitor? I suspect that is going to go over _so_ well.
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Businesses also don't upgrade often and aren't going to be the main source of income for hardware makers and the big microprocessor market. They buy directly from OEMs and that money isn't enough to keep Intel nor AMD afloat, never mind the OEMs themselves and everyone else involved.

How many Pentium 4's are still in offices worldwide? How long did it take for WinXP to surpass Win7? Yea...

The average consumer is what everyone is gunning for because that's where the big money is. There's a lot more potential customers in the "average consumer" market, and the upgrade cycle is often shorter thus providing even more sales.

It's important to compare these trends in relation to each other. The PC market is saturated and there isn't much room for growth, and given that the upgrade cycle has been greatly elongated (how often does your average Joe upgrade their desktop?), means that while there can be money made there, it's going to be a lot less than in high growth markets that don't suffer from that same saturation.

So how does an Intel compare to somebody like a Qualcomm or Samsung?

Everyone expected Intel's figures to be pretty bad for 2012, 4Q 2012 included. The majority of that had already been built into the price. The real thing hurting Intel's share price right now, is their outlook for 2013. Intel was up 2.58% or $0.57 to $22.68. After announcing their earnings a bit early (12:59 instead of the traditional 1:01 PST), their stock has been hammered and is currently down $1.15 or 5.07% at $21.53.

Intel's outlook for 2013 as a whole is that they expect low single digit revenue growth (below 5%). This is in conjunction for their guidance for 1Q 2013, which they expect to hit $12.7 billion in revenue with a margin of error of $500 million. They also expect gross margin to remain at 58% plus or minus a couple percentage points. Compared to 1Q 2012, which came in at $12.9 billion and a gross margin of 64%. The continued decrease in revenue and gross margin year over year will likely be a popular topic during most conference calls regarding Intel.

Since Intel is considered a bellwether of types, this is likely going to spark a trend of concern for the PC market and semiconductor industry as a whole. The slow down in the European economy is clearly hurting these large chip makers as they cannot rely on the slow recovery in the US to prop them up. We're hopeful that Intel is going to be able to execute their mobile strategies in 2013, otherwise we're not too sure they'll be able to stop this trend.
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Samsung Electronics expects to post another record profit quarter for 2012's Q4 results, which are due to be announced later this month.

The South Korean electronics conglomerate estimates that its fourth-quarter operating profit has increased by 88 percent to $8.3 billion when compared to the same period during 2011.

The firm, which is the world's largest consumer electronics maker, also forecasts its fourth-quarter sales to be $52.6 billion. The results will be announced on January 25.

Samsung shipped 18 million Galaxy S3 units during the third quarter, representing a considerable increase from 5.4 million in the second quarter, which is an increase of 230 percent. Additionally, two months after it was released, the Galaxy Note 2 phablet sold 5 million units.

As for the Galaxy S3's commercial performance, the device became one of the best-selling Android smartphones since its 2012 launch. It sold 30 million units before the year was over and became the best-selling smartphone on the planet during the third quarter, a title that was held previously by Apple's iPhone 4S.

During the third quarter of 2012, meanwhile, Samsung recorded a record profit of $7.4 billion. Its operating profits increased by 91 percent when compared to the same period in 2011.
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With Qualcomm's powerful, versatile and efficient Snapdragon S4 taking the mobile world by storm, it should come as no surprise that the company's accountants are smiling more than ever. Today, the firm posted earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012, which includes a net income of $1.27 billion with revenues of $4.87 billion. In terms of profit, these figures represent a 20 percent year-over-year increase and a five percent bump when compared to the previous quarter. A peek inside Qualcomm's books reveal that the company is now sitting on $43 billion in assets and $9.4 billion in liabilities -- if only our own pocketbooks were overflowing in similar fashion. Feel free to count some beans for yourself at the source link below.
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And they're market cap is now bigger than Intel's.

So this "slow economy" is only affecting parts of the industry, but some people think it's just a coincidence that the affected parts are the x86 PC space?

I'm going to keep building desktops and buying PCs, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to stick my fingers in my ears and my head in the sand.
 
I'd say he's the exception, and not necessarily the rule. Many (most?) business users don't need all that much horsepower to use some form of office suite, database, web applications, etc.
While I personally will keep my PC as a gaming/multimedia platform and I *do* need to use power hungry apps like Adobe CS, I know I'm a pretty small minority.
A tablet with a keyboard and mouse is simply a small form factor PC.
 
rflcptr said:
Is it too late to rename the thread for hilarious misquotes? :p
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yeah I was waaaaaay off on the size... but

"640K ought to be enough for anybody" *was* *definitely* said by Bill Gates. He said it at an early microcomputer trade show in Seattle in mid 1981. It is the Microsoft PR machine that has tried over the years to rewrite history and pretend that Gates never made this asinine comment.
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8TB of pirated contents most likely. Either way, PCs won't be needed once Internet is more heavily regulated and most of the media will be readily accessible via cloud.
 
Diff strokes for diff folks

My parents and many casual users I know.. they have gone to tablets..
My very young nephews, cousins and neices are all growing up with tablets..They currently don't see a need to ever get on a PC.

me.. i'm still hanging on to my PC's because I'm a nerd and I'm used to them.
 
What tablets (and smartphones) are doing is exposing the people who never really needed/wanted a desktop to begin with (which is a frighteningly high number), but used it because that was all that was available at the time. Now they have something that's smaller, lighter, portable and still does what they want, so they all jumped to that. Saying that "tablets are trying to supplant to desktops" because of that is not correct. The people that jumped (exclusively) to tablets never wanted a desktop to begin with.
 
I work for a very large financial institution and we are currently looking heavily into migrating many users desktops to thin clients for VDI. Along with Tablets, Touchscreen laptops. The desktop is definitely on the outs in the business world. At least the push is starting to out it.
 
4saken said:
I work for a very large financial institution and we are currently looking heavily into migrating many users desktops to thin clients for VDI. Along with Tablets, Touchscreen laptops. The desktop is definitely on the outs in the business world. At least the push is starting to out it.
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BYOD just makes more sense. It's a lot like the past push towards docked laptops, except now that docked device will be a tablet or smartphone rather than your PC.

One device to rule them all.
 
Most folks want simple.

They want to look at youtube and their email by just pointing at the little icon.
The tablet is fine for them.
Not complicated, does email and AngryBirds, looks up recipes and photos of sister Jane's new baby.

I finally dumped my laptop for an older iPad.
Easy stuff on the tablet, complicated stuff and gaming on the PCs.

The article is nothing new.
 
dr.stevil said:
x2. The PC as we know it will be here for quite some time to come.
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And even then, its not like the desktop PC and its enthusiasts aren't evolving with the times. The microATX and mini-ITX motherboard and case form factors are becoming more and more popular. Desktop chips are getting cooler and less power hungry. Enthusiasts are starting to realize that the massive expandability of a full ATX system goes largely unused, and that the horsepower of current CPUs are MORE than enough for what they want to do (how many people actually transitioned over to Ivy Bridge from Sandy Bridge?). Desktops are will get smaller and lighter while still retaining all their power. A few years from now an Intel NUC-like system may have all the power an enthusiast could ask for (well, besides the GPU, which might be external at that point).
 
The ONLY reason why I use a PC at home is PC gaming. If I decided to just go console, which isn't a stretch given most games are specifically made for consoles... I would not need a desktop at all, period.

I have multiple monitors at home and in the office... My laptop runs them just fine and docking stations at home and work make it easy to be productive in both locations.
 
pelo said:
BYOD just makes more sense. It's a lot like the past push towards docked laptops, except now that docked device will be a tablet or smartphone rather than your PC.

One device to rule them all.
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yes BYOD is the future for sure. At least for the masses.
 
BloodyIron said:
A lot of businesses leverage multiple monitors in productivity. How do you think people are going to respond when they only get a tablet, and then later decide they want an additional monitor? I suspect that is going to go over _so_ well.
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Exactly my thoughts. At the company I work for, there is a large number of the workforce that have dual monitors. With decent and reliable LCDs being so inexpensive nowadays, it's a cheap way for a company to increase productivity.

Who remembers the likes of the NEC 22" CRTs that ran about $800-$1000 each? Damn, that's got to be my favorite monitor of all time, but I'm so thankful that I can get 2-3 decent and larger LCDs for that much or less.

When I can add another monitor to my PC for oftentimes less than the cost of a budget tablet, the choice becomes all to easy. Tablets have their place and they do a great job, but they are no where near the capability of price for performance of a PC...and I suspect they never will be. At least for quite a while yet.
 
Another good example how some stories lead their own lives combined with market data about the PC losing ground to tablets people jump the gun.

Tablets as shown by kbrickley are not going to replace anything it is just another market where people can make money and the PC market will make a little bit less money , nothing to get upset about or write "Give up the PC? Get real! You’d have to pry the keyboard and mouse from my cold, dead hands".

It is the usual drama queen internet behaviour OMG OMG.
Luckily there was no section on how he is going to continue to play extremely violent video games on his PC, then again you could play those on a tablet too I guess ;)
 
DejaWiz said:
Exactly my thoughts. At the company I work for, there is a large number of the workforce that have dual monitors. With decent and reliable LCDs being so inexpensive nowadays, it's a cheap way for a company to increase productivity.

Who remembers the likes of the NEC 22" CRTs that ran about $800-$1000 each? Damn, that's got to be my favorite monitor of all time, but I'm so thankful that I can get 2-3 decent and larger LCDs for that much or less.

When I can add another monitor to my PC for oftentimes less than the cost of a budget tablet, the choice becomes all to easy. Tablets have their place and they do a great job, but they are no where near the capability of price for performance of a PC...and I suspect they never will be. At least for quite a while yet.
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Except most companies are running dual monitors off of laptops with Intel integrated graphics chips ... once we start to see tablets like the Surface Pro with an i5 and latest Intel graphics chip they will be more or less the equivalent of a laptop (just without the keyboard) ... since I already use a docking station and external keyboard and mouse for my laptop at the office there would be little difference between that and a tablet with a docking station ... I think the business desktop is already a niche market since there are so few businesses that don't require travel or expect you to support after hour meetings from home (which both work better with a laptop)

Note that laptops had already made the desktop a niche product for high performance users ... the tablets are just doing the same for laptops ;)
 
The article simply discusses the difference between content production, content consumption and the gray area in between. If you are strictly a content consumer, then a tablet is more computing power than you will ever need. Conversely, if you were a producer, a full fledged desktop/laptop or some derivative of is what you would need.

The article also speaks to another interesting point. The fact that in the past consumer had very little choice in terms of computing format. Everyone had a desktop at some point. As time went on and computing power advanced then slowly overtook the requirements of basic computing needs provided by desktops, we began to move away from them.

This is clearly evident in the sales figures of types of PC's over time.
 
RasputinPCDying.jpg


People have been predicting the end of the PC nigh-on THREE DECADES now.

When are these idiots going to learn?
 
My PC is for me to rule the world.

My tablet is for the world to sell me crap!
 
pelo said:
While that's true of a small portion of the population that tends to congregate here (and on other forums and tech sites), is it true for the vast majority of the market? I doubt that. They're quite fine with buying a shiny new gadget every two years while their desktop sits relegated to closet duties.
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Exactly. What you guys are missing is that this forum is a congregation for the minority. We are the guys who, fifty years ago, said "Who would ever buy a Japanese car? They're no fun, there's no soul." We are the guys who said hot-rodding would be around forever- it still exists, but it's a tiny little corner instead of the mainstream. We are the guys who will be left behind if we don't realize that we are the exception, not everyone else.
BloodyIron said:
A lot of businesses leverage multiple monitors in productivity. How do you think people are going to respond when they only get a tablet, and then later decide they want an additional monitor? I suspect that is going to go over _so_ well.
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Option one: DisplayPort and ThunderBolt allow daisy-chaining multiple monitors from one plug, as of the later revisions. It's not hard to imagine that tablets will retain one such port.
Option two: Look up Miracast and other wireless video standards. I see no reason Miracast couldn't support multiple screens, if it doesn't already- it's just a question of bandwidth.
 
kbrickley said:
Except most companies are running dual monitors off of laptops with Intel integrated graphics chips ... once we start to see tablets like the Surface Pro with an i5 and latest Intel graphics chip they will be more or less the equivalent of a laptop (just without the keyboard) ... since I already use a docking station and external keyboard and mouse for my laptop at the office there would be little difference between that and a tablet with a docking station ... I think the business desktop is already a niche market since there are so few businesses that don't require travel or expect you to support after hour meetings from home (which both work better with a laptop)

Note that laptops had already made the desktop a niche product for high performance users ... the tablets are just doing the same for laptops ;)
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There are quite a few users at my company that have laptops with dock, keyboard, mouse, and monitor and only a small percentage with dual monitors off the dock. I was thinking about the Surface tablet when I posted earlier, but I really consider that a keyboardless touchscreen laptop/ultrabook (when not including the keyboard-laden flip cover)...and no word yet on a full dock to allow multiple monitor/device connections afaik.

With the price point of the Surface Pro starting at $900, it does become a viable alternative to the traditional laptop (that can even cost a bit more than that for a business grade model - even a basic one). I will welcome keyboardless ultrabooks with open arms once we start seeing things like the availability of more powerful discrete graphics controllers (as an optional upgrade, since there are users that require them for CAD/Engineering work), full docks with multiple video output capability and lots of USB ports, extended batteries, etc. Until then, they fall just a little short of what our current laptops can provide, even the models that are a few years old and still in service.

Don't misunderstand me - I love my smartphone and my tablet, but they are no where near the computing capability of my laptop and PC. Devices like the Surface narrow that gap, but they still have a bit of evolving to do for what I need done at both work and home. Until then, I see no need for tablet/keyboardless ultrabooks from my personal standpoint or my company's business needs in regards to productivity demands.

Some will agree with me, others will not. It all depends on how those needs are defined on an individual basis and what devices can fulfill those needs.
 
I have the same setup; a lot of screen estate, terabytes of storage, and an ergonomic workstation in general: the keyboard, mouse, and monitors are in their right place.
Using a laptop is laughable to me, so using a tablet...
 
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