Analyst: PC Back To School Sales Sink 8.6% Worldwide

Karloff

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Analyst: PC Back To School Sales Sink 8.6% Worldwide



Q3 2013 was not a happy time for PC manufacturers.

PC sales are down again in Q3 2013, dropping 8.6% worldwide, and are at their lowest volume for this quarter since 2008. Why is Q3 vital? Because it's the back-to-school quarter, that moment when manufacturers can guarantee parents are going to be outfitting their spawn with everything needed for academic success. Now it's up to the Christmas season to cheer up the PC market, but if current trends are any indication it may be a lean Christmas this year for the likes of Lenovo and HP.

"Consumers' shift from PCs to tablets for daily content consumption continued to decrease the installed base of PCs both in mature as well as in emerging markets," says Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at analyst Gartner. "A greater availability of inexpensive Android tablets attracted first-time consumers in emerging markets, and as supplementary devices in mature markets." Tablets are the PC's biggest threat right now; consumers from Russia to Africa are spurning the PC for an Android. It's not helped by local conditions in those markets, which often have weak currencies when compared to the US dollar; high prices make PCs much less attractive.

It's not all bad news for the PC crowd. There were strong sales in the US, which may indicate an economic turnaround since the doldrums of 2010, when sales were at their worst. Tablets are still expected to impact on US PC sales in the coming months, but at a slower rate than elsewhere. But sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa took a beating - declining 13.7% overall - while weakness in the Chinese market and currency fluctuations in India and Indonesia negatively impacted sales in the Asia/Pacific region.

Source: Gartner [http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2604616]


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snekadid

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Mar 29, 2012
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The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.

Windows 8 is a virus( I mean that in a multitude of ways) that is infecting the PC market and driving customers away.
 

Covarr

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May 29, 2009
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It's not just a shift from PCs to tablets. It's the fact that upgrades simply aren't as necessary as they used to be. Windows 7 runs better than Vista on equivalent hardware, and Windows 8 better still. Why is anyone going to buy a new PC, when their machine from 2009 still works fine as a low-midrange machine today? Computers have gotten more powerful in the last four years, but our needs have not grown nearly as much. It's not like the difference between 2005 and 2009, which was pretty much night and day.

P.S. Thanks
 

DonTsetsi

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May 22, 2009
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As long as people are using their machines as facebook viewers, a PC from this decade is all they need. No point in upgrading. Now, for actual work, it's... the same, unless it's for 3D visualization or other work that actually needs good specs.
 

PoolCleaningRobot

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It could also be the fact that a lot of cheaper and faster netbooks, notebooks, and tablet pc's are only just now starting to come out. Asus, for example, has a Windows 8.1 tablet with a keyboard dock and 64 gig SSD and the usual netbook specs for $400 coming out on the 18th. There wasn't a whole lot out during September and August when people are usually looking to buy

snekadid said:
The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.
On flip side, there were practically no Windows 8 tablets a few years ago either. If you wanted a Windows 8 tablet for less than $800 all you would find are Windows RT tablets netbook hybrids which were completely useless cause they cost more than Android tablets but had less app support. They built a desktop OS for tablets and had no tablets to run it on
 

GonvilleBromhead

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I think another aspect is the fact that Windows 8 does not feel like a machine designed for business - it feels more like a machine designed for faffing about, which impacts everything. Business do not feel it looks professional. Parents looking at school equipment will want something that at least looks and feels like it'll be used for actual work - something more businesslike and less like an idle distraction. And, for me, it feels that a lot of the innovation in windows 8 exist purely for innovation sake; something that I didn't feel with 7, where even stuff I didn't use felt like it might be useful for something.
 

RicoADF

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snekadid said:
The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.

Windows 8 is a virus( I mean that in a multitude of ways) that is infecting the PC market and driving customers away.
I'm actually thinking about grabbing a few Win 7 Pro discs as backups/extra copies for future PC's, if Win 8 is where Microsoft is going then it looks like I'm stopping at Win 7.
 

romxxii

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snekadid said:
The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.

Windows 8 is a virus( I mean that in a multitude of ways) that is infecting the PC market and driving customers away.
When you say Windows 8, what you really mean is the Metro/Modern UI. The core Windows 8 desktop functionality remains largely unchanged, and is in fact a bit zippier than Windows 7. Driver support is even better, and there's native .ISO support too.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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romxxii said:
snekadid said:
The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.

Windows 8 is a virus( I mean that in a multitude of ways) that is infecting the PC market and driving customers away.
When you say Windows 8, what you really mean is the Metro/Modern UI. The core Windows 8 desktop functionality remains largely unchanged, and is in fact a bit zippier than Windows 7. Driver support is even better, and there's native .ISO support too.
Err no, even with the start button etc added via Start 8 the OS is shoddy compared to Windows 7. It's slower to fulfill commands, if you give it the 3 finger salute (ctrl+alt+del) it takes minutes to stop doing whatever it's doing and give you the screen to request the task manager then longer for it to come up, unlike Win 7 where it's instantanious. And this isn't comparing an old PC to a new one, this is comparing Win 7 and 8 on a laptop that plays the newest games without issue and 2 other laptops my mate has which also have these issues. We have LAN games and the Win 7 machines work perfectly, Win 8 is shoddy, slow and cause nothing but issues/annoyances. It was designed by idiots.
 

romxxii

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RicoADF said:
romxxii said:
snekadid said:
The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.

Windows 8 is a virus( I mean that in a multitude of ways) that is infecting the PC market and driving customers away.
When you say Windows 8, what you really mean is the Metro/Modern UI. The core Windows 8 desktop functionality remains largely unchanged, and is in fact a bit zippier than Windows 7. Driver support is even better, and there's native .ISO support too.
Err no, even with the start button etc added via Start 8 the OS is shoddy compared to Windows 7. It's slower to fulfill commands, if you give it the 3 finger salute (ctrl+alt+del) it takes minutes to stop doing whatever it's doing and give you the screen to request the task manager then longer for it to come up, unlike Win 7 where it's instantanious. And this isn't comparing an old PC to a new one, this is comparing Win 7 and 8 on a laptop that plays the newest games without issue and 2 other laptops my mate has which also have these issues. We have LAN games and the Win 7 machines work perfectly, Win 8 is shoddy, slow and cause nothing but issues/annoyances. It was designed by idiots.
Er, I'm on Windows 8, and have been since the preview builds. At the same time, I was still bootstrapped to Windows 7 on another partition. I've compared both OSes side by side; there is no visible latency when running an x86 application on Windows 8. Have you checked the specs on the Windows 8 device? Perhaps your friend bought a lemon.

Just to prove I'm not talking out of my ass, here's my specs:
 

Smertnik

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snekadid said:
The real threat to PC sales is that Windows 8 works like shit on a PC considering it was made entirely with a tablets design in mind. All PCs come with Windows 8 now, and speaking as a Computer Science major, it was a massive pain in the ass uninstalling Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 so that it actually worked.

Windows 8 is a virus( I mean that in a multitude of ways) that is infecting the PC market and driving customers away.
How exactly does Windows 8 "work like shit"? I've been using it for over a year now and it behaves at the very least exactly like Windows 7, if not better.
 

saltyanon

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This analyst sounds like he's only talking about pre-builts and I don't see any mention of PC parts. Less people are buying stupidly expensive pre-builts? That's a good thing. People not upgrading because their system is still good for its perceived purpose? That's a good thing. That's surely part of what's happening, at the very least.
 

RicoADF

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romxxii said:
Er, I'm on Windows 8, and have been since the preview builds. At the same time, I was still bootstrapped to Windows 7 on another partition. I've compared both OSes side by side; there is no visible latency when running an x86 application on Windows 8. Have you checked the specs on the Windows 8 device? Perhaps your friend bought a lemon.

Just to prove I'm not talking out of my ass, here's my specs:
*image snip*
4 computers with the lag when giving the 3 finger salute? All of which high end machines, yeah no. Most of the issues we have are annoyances at the shitty UI and just being annoying. Not to mention issues with some software which Win 7 doesn't. We play alot of older games over LAN as so many new games just fail at supporting it.
 

Strazdas

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Maybe thats because as far as hardware is there is no need to upgrade as nothing demanding enough is out except few specific softwares that are interested only by limited consuemr base.
and as far as software goes there is no need to downgrade either.
I got windows 7 over Xp simply becuase XP kinda stopped being supported. after 10 years. I expect my win 7 to last 10 as well.

saltyanon said:
This analyst sounds like he's only talking about pre-builts and I don't see any mention of PC parts. Less people are buying stupidly expensive pre-builts? That's a good thing. People not upgrading because their system is still good for its perceived purpose? That's a good thing. That's surely part of what's happening, at the very least.
thats because you kinda cant count the PC parts sales well. some will sell from manufacturers that arent common, some wil lget resold in another country, some will be used as a replacement, some as a n upgrade, some to build new PC. you cant really predict where part sales are going, so its hard to argue for thier inclusion in the report.
 

romxxii

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RicoADF said:
*image snip*
4 computers with the lag when giving the 3 finger salute? All of which high end machines, yeah no. Most of the issues we have are annoyances at the shitty UI and just being annoying. Not to mention issues with some software which Win 7 doesn't. We play alot of older games over LAN as so many new games just fail at supporting it.[/quote]

Well I just posted the specs to my high end machine, and I got zero problems. What about yours? It's easy to say "I got four computers that lag, they're all high end", without showing proof if your specs do in fact count as "high end". So unless you show proof, I'll consider your statements as anecdotal at best.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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romxxii said:
Well I just posted the specs to my high end machine, and I got zero problems. What about yours? It's easy to say "I got four computers that lag, they're all high end", without showing proof if your specs do in fact count as "high end". So unless you show proof, I'll consider your statements as anecdotal at best.
*Sigh* your ignoring what I'm saying that you can't dispute, I said there was issues with the UI as well as compatibility issues and just general annoyances as well.

The reason I didn't reply with my specs is that I generally don't post specs online as it often starts a spec war (and because I would have to pull my laptop out and start it up rather than reply with my desktop), but if you need proof that my opinion is valid (who are you to determine how valid someone is?), then here you go:

I only have one system that I can take a screenshot of as it's my laptop, the other laptops are my friends and thus I don't have their computers here. I can say that one has an i5 and a Nvidia 640 with 6GB of ram, the other is an i5 with 8GB of ram and a 750 and the final one I can't fully remember off the top of my head other than its an i7 with 8GB of ram and a radeon graphics card.