Windows 8 sales figures

[Gonga]

Yes, the Personal Computer revolution is in trouble actually. People aren't interested in building their own PC exactly how they personally want it, installing and configuring the software for themselves personally, and innovating with all the power the PC revolution brought us. Now people are just buying little appliances created for them by someone presumably smarter than they are and who, no doubt, used a PC to figure it all out for them.

Windows 8 is quite superior to Windows 7. It's faster, for one. The new machine I built for the wife boots in 7 SECONDS (GPT partition under AHCI). It has everything Windows 7 had, plus it has the next MS OS paradigm, so I'm easing into it now (I've never had much choice but to always stay on the bleeding edge, and by jeezus I'm not stopping now). I use Classic Start Menu to ease this old dog's pain.

The news apps alone are worth the $39 I paid for the upgrade.

btw, if you have a laptop with a newish, large Synaptics touchpad, it's amazing what you can do with it. It takes some practice, but 2, 3 and 4-finger gestures make quick work out of some things that seem to be more difficult with a mouse. Go into the Synaptics software and enable it - it's not enabled by default.

[Alfalfa]

Now people are just buying little appliances created for them by someone presumably smarter than they are and who, no doubt, used a PC to figure it all out for them.

No joke, I am afraid that I will be providing tech support to the younger generation as well as the older generation for the rest of my life. It just works, until it doesn't, then they hand it over to someone. Who?

[GaryG]

I strongly disagree; large enterprises, institutions, public places etc. will never switch to mobile setups. Sales are lower atm because of the economy and also there's more choice available. That is definitely not a sign of desktops dying out.

Many will switch to personal mobile devices for travel and entertainment, but we'll always do the serious work on our big-screen desktop setups.

"We" being musos/producers etc? Well yes but if you mean the working population in general (massively bigger) then no. People will sit at desks for the forseeable future with big screens and keyboards (probably...) but it's unlikely they'll have a conventional desktop for much longer. I'm seeing thin clients really take off, off-loading all the work onto citrix servers etc while you just have some little box on the back of your monitor (pretty much a tablet sans screen). Public perception is changing too, if they can browse the web on their phone or tv then why have a laptop, never mind a desktop. They will become niche products. But the power is trickling down, look at gaming laptops; a few years ago you'd have been laughed out the door of any LAN event if you turned up with a laptop whereas now dedicated gaming laptops are everywhere.

[EvilDragon]

The new machine I built for the wife boots in 7 SECONDS (GPT partition under AHCI).

That's if you boot into Metro. The regular desktop still keeps booting in the background. Try bypassing Metro and booting directly to "ye olde" W7 desktop and see how long it takes W8 then. Tip: exactly the same W7 took.

[robogone]

Desktops and netbooks are definitely on their way out

Desktops will NEVER be "out". They will always have the most power available. Which is really important in things that we do (DAW, native plugins, etc.)

In terms of sales they are. While they might not disappear completely I think the only way they could survive is if they get more expensive as the current wafter thin profits can't be sustained without the current volume.

They may become a niche product, but there is certainly a decline in sales with no sign of a leveling off that I have seen comment or predictions of.

I strongly disagree; large enterprises, institutions, public places etc. will never switch to mobile setups.

The company I work for employs over 200,000 people and none of them use desktops - it's rare to find one anywhere in the company. There is also a small number of pilot programs that have allowed the use of tablets.

If you do some research on the web, you'll find articles about large companies increasing use of tablets in the workplace, so I think your "never" is questionable.

Sales are lower atm because of the economy and also there's more choice available. That is definitely not a sign of desktops dying out.

But if sales for desktops is decreasing while laptops sales stay flat and tablet sales increase, how does that logic work? If all hardware sales were decreasing equally I would agree, but with the decreases being pretty much only in the desktop, it does point to something other than 'the economy' driving the change.

[maxxxter]

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[EvilDragon]

Yep. I can't imagine doing Word, Excel, Photoshop on a tablet. It just isn't right.

[Keith99]

The company I work for has about 1000 employees and they all have desktops (mix of PCs and Macs) but over the last few years more and more are getting tablets in addition and we have supplies of ipads for meetings etc. I have not heard anyone yet say they could do without their office machine though

[Keith99]

BTW: another interesting analysis of sales trends here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... t-analysis

with

[robogone]

It's about the format; mobile devices are not meant for serious work.

If you look at the old paradigm, yes. Just Google a little and you'll see how 'serious' companies are starting to use tablets more and more often.

The only real issues with tablets for large companies is data protection, which is probably the main inhibitor to greater uptake in the workplace.

[robogone]

Not hard to find some info about this quite easily:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2012 ... g-to-work/

While I'm not going to talk about my work at a Fortune 500 company, I have the option of handing in my enterprise mobile device and replacing it with my personal iPhone or iPad.

The only reason I don't do it is personal choice because I don't like the small print of the agreement I would sign with my employer which basically means they can take my personal device at any time they want to for an audit. I understand why they would want to, but it also contains my personal information which I don't want to hand over.

[maxxxter]

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[robogone]

If you look at the old paradigm, yes. Just Google a little and you'll see how 'serious' companies are starting to use tablets more and more often.

..as an addition to desktops, sure.

No, in place of. Check out the decline of desktop sales and the increase in tablet sales.

My company is in the top 10 largest companies in the world and there are pretty much 0 desktops in the company now and growing use of tablets. There isn't even an option in the technology ordering system to order a desktop anymore. I could walk the floor of this building (about 120 people on this floor) and I guarantee I would have a hard time finding a desktop.

Just Google for some insight into what is happening in the workplace now. You'll find it insightful.

[rifftrax]

good luck finding anyone that can do 100wpm on a tablet. Anyone that needs to type anything is going to be well, on a desktop. The end, end of story.

Just sayin.

[maxxxter]

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