Windows 8 sales figures

[kontrolfreak]

I have no desire to give up my PC ever. I hate finger prints on my monitors and can't stand using a laptop. ipads are neat but again only for certain uses none of these can "replace" a desktop and can't possibly for several years.

I would have to wipe down my monitor after every fader adjustment or increase my drive. No thanks!!!

Remember that gamers are massive part of the desktop market and 2 Geforce cards running in Sli is not going to fit into or onto a tablet or laptop!! There will always be a need for desktops in real use maybe not for the average user but nothing professional is going to come from a tablet or laptop any time soon.

[Alfalfa]

Well replace the word 'dying' with 'declining' then. They will be around for a while, but sales have been hit hard in recent years and look like they're going to decline.

PC makers will focus on desktop sales as an indicator, because that's all that matters to them. But if you were to focus on what actually gets used, hourly, I think you'd see a healthy usage of desktops still.

Sales are, of course, declining. One reason is that a modern desktop is overkill for many users. But, that does not make them obsolete, which is implied or stated in many of the "death-of-desktop-is-nigh-at-hand" articles. If you need one, you need one. When your whole studio is wired into the thing, there's no point in using a laptop. It's not going anywhere anyway.

I did some work for a local office of a Fortune 500 company and everything was old desktops. The sales team had ancient laptops. They got the job done and this division was not going to spend more than they had to on tech. I'm sure in the labs there was better tech than in the administrative area. They also didn't want their computers and data walking out the door every evening. What is true for one Fortune 500 company may not be true for another.

[robogone]

the fact that i don't need a new desktop now, doesn't mean i don't want a new one in the future.

heck - I've had mine for ages now! it's going to take few more year for me to feel any need to upgrade, i feel!

but eventually i will, so i feel the collective demand for proper desktops will always be there.

numbers can change.

So you think the massive drop in sales is a statistical anomaly based on everyone simultaneously making the decision to keep their desktop longer?

I hope the desktop manufacturers are prepared for when they all break down simultaneously and there's a rush buy to get numbers back up to 2008 levels.

[koolkeys]

It's really hard to judge statistics right now because there is currently a tablet "boom" going on. Of course people are buying them. They are the "in" thing. They are cool, compact, etc. And they are more affordable than most laptops and desktops, which in a struggling economy, makes them attractive. We'll see where it all stands once tablets are no longer the new and cool thing, and just another option instead.

But despite some companies going away from desktops, that's by FAR not the norm right now.

Graphics design, gaming, web and application development, video editing, publications and desktop publishing, and yes, even mainstream audio production and music making......these and many more things will never likely switch entirely or even mostly to tablets. They just aren't ideal.

So I'm sure anyone could bring up temporary statistics, but in the end, let's see how things are in five years. Because right now, the processing power and ergonomics on tablets can't even come close to even a decent mid-range laptop.

Brent

[GaryG]

Plus, my arrangement represents a sampling of any industry worker that needs multiple monitors to manage a large amount of data all at the same time. That's actually a pretty huge segment of industry, especially now that "global industries" are moving towards hiring people that can manage jobs that would have normally (previously) been segmented and spread out among multiple workers.

As awesome as your office is (I'm jealous ) it's hardly representative of the average 'office worker'. Hot desking and homeworking are more prevalent trends, as is shunting apps from the desktop onto citrix servers (for instance) so low cost thin clients (eg wedge pcs) can be used instead. A lot of these certainly don't uses W8 which I think is the crux of this argument, poor sales because not needed by business as much?

[robogone]

Well replace the word 'dying' with 'declining' then. They will be around for a while, but sales have been hit hard in recent years and look like they're going to decline.

PC makers will focus on desktop sales as an indicator, because that's all that matters to them. But if you were to focus on what actually gets used, hourly, I think you'd see a healthy usage of desktops still.

Sales are, of course, declining.

Yes, they are going to focus on that as it's an indication of what they need to hold in inventory, so there's a lot of interest. With year over year declines in sales, it's not looking good for them being sold in the numbers they were previously sold in, and nothing to indicate that the desktop will make a resurgence in sales at any time in the future.

There will still be a market for them, I'm sure. It's just that they're in decline and that there is a paradigm shift in the air that appears on the surface to be unstoppable.

[robogone]

But despite some companies going away from desktops, that's by FAR not the norm right now.

Graphics design, gaming, web and application development, video editing, publications and desktop publishing, and yes, even mainstream audio production and music making......these and many more things will never likely switch entirely or even mostly to tablets. They just aren't ideal.

However, when you take those industries listed above I'm pretty sure it's a safe bet that they make up a tiny minority of all computer users across all industries.

Remember that this forum has more than its fair share of people working in graphics and audio, but there is another wide world out there which I see every day and the tendency I am experiencing is that desktops are gone and being replaced with laptops.

That would make more sense based on sales as the laptop has held pretty steady. Sales have declined significantly for desktops - I don't think anyone has any arguments there. There has to be a reason for that, and that reason is certainly not that the desktop market is stable and that most companies are sticking with desktops.

[Alfalfa]

There will still be a market for them, I'm sure. It's just that they're in decline and that there is a paradigm shift in the air that appears on the surface to be unstoppable.

I agree with that. Stores stock fewer and fewer desktops. The consumer-grade desktop may disappear altogether. Workstations, though, will be around for the foreseeable future. You just might not be able to get parts at Best Buy anymore (they're overpriced compared with Newegg and Amazon now anyway).

[GaryG]

There will still be a market for them, I'm sure. It's just that they're in decline and that there is a paradigm shift in the air that appears on the surface to be unstoppable.

I got to work this morning to find half the office taken up with new desktops so still popular around here.

The fact most of our workers sit at their desk 9-5 working on multiple systems, talking calls etc will mean less take up of mobile technologies of course but tablets are coming in, plenty of managers and out-and-about types have them, trickling down for sure.

[mkdr]

This ipad im writing on now (shitty to write on btw) cost more than my two previous pc setups combined.. Maybe there are more people like me who use desktops alot but dont need to waste so much money on maintaining them (everyone without a Mac).

And also.. Communication and internet is steering torwards more mobile solutions. People dont need more power right now. They need mobility. Thats why i for example got a tablet. Not because it had any dice over my deskto setup, but because i can facebook, youtoob and skype where ever i want. Oh and hang on forums

Im seeing a new desktop in my future and a touchscreen laptop. But definitely no new tablet in the next 10 years.

[metamorphosis]

Its basically win7 with tablet/touchscreen additions. You can switch it all off.

Nope. Custom hacks to insert a start menu via classic shell yes, but within the OS itself, no. And even with classic shell it's still kinda shit.

Regards laptops/tablets vs desktops, well, anyone with a brain uses a desktop for serious work. If you don't, you're a dolt. The hardware breakdown ratios are so much higher for the miniaturised market it's not funny. Desktops, well-built (and even the not so well built ones) tend to just keep kicking back for years upon years.

[Lode_Runner]

I can see desktops disappearing from many large workplaces and being replaced by connections to servers.

What I can't see is monitors, keyboards, and mice being replaced by touch screen tablets in the workplace. Not only are they not set up for touch-typing, word processing, spreadsheets etc, but they just wouldn't make sense ergonomically. Either you'd have workers with their necks craned all day long, or their arms constantly held up. Either way, you're looking at massive worker's compensation claims in the long run. They're designed for three year olds who like to point their fingers at pretty pictures, not for the average worker bee.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if touch screens turn out to be a fad.



Did you know Disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976? If these trends continue... Aye.


Getting back to the topic of the original post, I want to know what New Coke tastes like.

[bmanic]

I think it's also too early to judge sales statistics. Win7 works so well that people don't feel like they have to immediately buy a new computer or OS right away. However, I have yet to meet a person who bought a new computer who hasn't been happy with Windows 8. It's awesome!

In my opinion it is a definitive step up from Windows 7. Everything runs just perfectly and it is much faster too, at least on my system. I've even managed to run some age old DOS games without any problems so it's just as backwards compatible as before. I've also managed to install quite a few hardware devices with the old windows 7 drivers without any issues.

For music hardware I think the only major hurdle will be lack of a legacy firewire device driver. This will render some older devices useless (including my old Sony video camera) but these devices are quite rare and shouldn't affect windows 8 sales.

I'm pretty sure that in the next 2, maybe 3 years windows 8 will have quite a lot larger user base, mainly through OEM sales of new computers. Once Haswell hits the shops in full force people will be switching to the new energy efficient tablets and laptops.

Cheers!
bManic

[Gonga]

I have an old Firewire card that won't work under W8. I ordered a SIIG that's supported under W8/64, so my fingers are crossed, because without it my Mackie 1640i mixer is an audio interface no longer.

My point isn't that the desktop is going away...that is clearly not the case. My point is that the PC could easily become more of an expensive boutique item, and many parents are raising kids today with no PC in the home. They have phones and tablets, maybe a notebook. That's a serious disadvantage for those kids. The chances that they'll understand the intimate workings of computers at an early age through tinkering are practically nonexistent as compared to previous generations, who grew up with a Tandy or Commodore or IBM PC, etc. to tinker with (tinkering with 3rd-party hardware and coding software - I started with BASIC myself).

In the US, we are strictly consumers, not producers. We created the Personal Computer revolution which changed the world and created our modern economy, but are now turning our back on the basic tech in the home that made it all possible. No problem so long as we have our $2000/year phones, right?

[robogone]

I can see desktops disappearing from many large workplaces and being replaced by connections to servers.

What I can't see is monitors, keyboards, and mice being replaced by touch screen tablets in the workplace. Not only are they not set up for touch-typing, word processing, spreadsheets etc, but they just wouldn't make sense ergonomically.

From a business perspective those are things that have been addressed already though, at least in the companies where I have insight into that (which are the very large companies).

It's easy to take a new device and make it look like the old one from the end user's perspective as that's happening now. If I get a new laptop at work all my settings will be in place and all my files will be available on various shares on file servers.

Also, I will be given a new docking station and continue to use the same monitors that I use now.

While tablets are lacking in some areas because of the hardware, they don't suffer from the same issues as far as the more graphic oriented. They're certainly more in use than desktops in my workplace and I can see that growing based on policy change.

As people have said, we'll see what happens, but trends for desktop sales seem to indicate that future use of desktops will be more limited in scope.