Windows 7: Why Are PC Sales Up And Tablet Sales Down?

A Guy · 26 Aug 2014

Quote:

When iPads first came out, they were hailed as the undoing of the PC. Finally, a cheap and reliable computing device for the average user instead of the complicated, quirky PC. After a few years of strong growth for iOS and Android tablets and a corresponding decrease in PC sales, the inverse is suddenly true: PC sales are up and tablet sales are “crashing.” What happened?

The tablet slowdown shouldn’t be a surprise given that tablets have hardly improved beyond relatively superficial changes in size, screen resolution, and processor speed. The initial market for tablets is now saturated: grandparents and kids have them, people bought them as Sonos controllers and such, and numerous households have them around for reading. People that want tablets have them, and there’s just no need to upgrade because they more than adequately perform their assigned tasks.

Businesses and consumers alike are again purchasing PCs, and Mac sales are on the rise year-over-year. Businesses in particular are forced to upgrade older PCs now that Windows XP is no longer supported. When purchasing a new PC, the main driver to choose a PC versus a tablet is fairly obvious: If you are creating any type of content regularly, you need a keyboard, a larger screen, and (for most businesses) Microsoft Office.

Source

A Guy

ThrashZone · 26 Aug 2014

Pretty accurate assessment

FerchogtX · 29 Aug 2014

Well, if you ask me, this is quite speculative, I mean, "Super Tablets"? C'mon, Samsung already reached some "level" of this state with the Galaxy Note 10.1, fast, reliable, and you can even work with it.

Now, let's face the reality, tablets like that are expensive as hell, while a PC with the same features (or even a decent laptop) are cheaper, and get the job done, as simple as that.

If they think the next step is to paste a super duper tablet of $ 1000 in your face to replace laptops or PC's... They are again failing. There is market for everything, I can tell that by myself, I have so far, a PC, my beloved laptop, and now, my Xperia for doing some tasks when I cannot use my laptop. Yeah, is not the same, but at least I can edit office documents, surf the web, check my mails and even send some reports and watch youtube videos, If I want to play or do something intensitive, I got my laptop or desktop, and they do the job quite well.

Things for which they were designed, don't force youngster to do the job of the experienced...

artfd · 08 Sep 2014

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 refurb last year to play with, I didn't invest much in it. Got to start liking the touch screen and the compactness. I found it especially helpful in taking a course in Chinese, where a touch screen is extremely helpful in learning to be Chinese literate. (If you don't understand why, you must not have studied Chinese).

I could carry the 7" Tab 2 in a cargo pocket of my pants, this was also very handy. It did have one major problem. It was too small. I must have put it down somewhere in my house and then covered it with a piece of paper. I have not seen it for 4 months. I know it's in the house since it would sign into my wireless router for over a week before its battery died. The author Jerry Pournelle said he lost a small tablet the same way I did.

Local newscasters are using tablets on-screen now. They have these bulky strap apparatuses to attach them to one hand so they won't drop their tablets. I don't know when I'll get used to watching that.

I have noticed the prices of basic PCs and laptops are getting really low, such as $250 for a Win8.1 laptop with built in webcam & 4GB RAM - no touch screen, which is less than many tablets. If all you had to spend on a computer was $250, what would you spend it on?