I think Microsoft are scared about the 'Death of PC'

Netrigan

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Nantucket said:
I disagree.

In our workplace and other places I have worked staff tend to use PCs rather than laptops. PCs are more secure and the IT guys have better access to what you're doing and in general they are safer in case you lose your laptop. Some directors have Ipads but on the whole you cannot write reports on an Ipad. They have desktop computers in their offices.

PCs will not die out anytime soon. Not only that, people would rather game on a PC than a Mac or a tablet. Tablets are not comfortable to play on and those little casual games are on the bus. I couldn't see dedicating hours of my life to Temple Run unless I was on a never ending bus journey. Macs are... well... I'm not sure how things are now but when I first started gaming most games were not available on the Macs.
If you allow me to split hairs here.

The personal computer (PC) is likely to be replaced by tablets or smart TVs or whatever other devices manages to perform the basic functions of a PC. Many users really don't have many uses for a computer, so anything which can surf the net, watch videos, and so on will cut into the PC market.

Business computing will likely continue on using desktops.

As for gaming, who knows. Consoles are dying, PCs are dying, everything is dying. I have a hard time believing that "hardcore" gaming is going to go away, but who knows what form it will take.
 

axlryder

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Jul 29, 2011
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Zachary Amaranth said:
Ultratwinkie said:
Actually consoles are dying.
Consoles AND PCs are both ALWAYS dying. It's the ultimate "no you!" "No YOU!" argument in gaming,.
I'd say that's a pretty good assessment. PC vs. console mortality argument in a nutshell.

 

TK421

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SciMal said:
Could have just stopped reading there. That "joke" is older than you are, and shows a complete lack of attempt to be fair.
First of all, you don't have to be a prick.
SciMal said:
Well no fuck, that's why they made W8. Frankly, the initial criticism (omg I have to adapt to new UI! WTF!) is just born of laziness.
Secondly, this is bullshit. Metro blows for those of us who are power users.
In terms of usability, I would like to point you to
Lastly, developers are horrified of Windows 8 and the app store. Valve is against it. Gabe called it a "catastrophe." Mojang is against it. Notch Said: "I'd rather have minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along."

It's not that we refuse to adapt. It's that we have standards of things that we're willing to adapt to.
 

enriquetnt

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There is no way to know what the future will bring my guess is that smartphones will kill both tablets and laptops, (they will always exist for niche markets) and PCs will remain for gaming and productivity, also i dont think consoles would ever die, maybe theyll wane a bit but dissapear? i dont think so, also as long as big games keep making big money theyll keep making them(maybe in different formats or means of delivery?, episodic content?, they kinda are already doing it whit all the damn dlc) what im SURE is gonna die off is the phisical format for movies and games (wich is sad) digital is the way of the future, (when was the last time you bought a CD?)
 

Bleidd Whitefalcon

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Zachary Amaranth said:
More complaints about Microsoft, Metro, and the death of PCs.

Must be Tuesday.
Amusingly enough, it's actually Tuesday here.

OT: I'm not sure because we can't see the future. Gaming PCs are going to stick around and so are the smartphones/tablets. My gut says "No, PC isn't dying anytime soon" though.
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Mar 21, 2010
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Between There and There.
Country
The Wide, Brown One.
BiscuitTrouser said:
I know logically laptops physically can compete with the graphics cards and RAM options available for my tower
That depends on what criteria you use to compare them and what ratios of performance you'll accept as 'competing'... not to mention all the various trade offs that you have to consider when it comes to miniaturisation (generally power Vs waste hear, and price... there's always price to consider).


but i hate the inability to customize and build laptops.
You can build a laptop from scratch... but options are severely limited and you'll end up paying around an extra 50-100% more than you would just buying the laptop off the shelf, so to speak... and that's assuming you can source all the parts to build it in the first place.
 

Dimitriov

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May 24, 2010
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I think Microsoft is scared about the 'Death of PC'
Because subject-verb agreement is important, dammit! :D

Anyway, no: the PC is not dying. Not even the desktop PC is dying.
 

cthulhuspawn82

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I find this idea of PCs and consoles dying out for smart phones and Ipads/laptops to be the stupidest idea ever. Gaming is huge and always will be, and who is going to pay $1000 more for a laptop that has less power than a PC.

As far as crappy Iphones and Ipads taking over gaming, would you really give up games like Dishonored to play Angry Birds? That would be like setting our gaming technology back by decades. "Oh, I don't need a multimillion dollar game with next gen graphics. Ill just play with this 50 mb app."
 

MetalMagpie

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LordFish said:
It's a massive dick move from Micro$oft...
Does that joke count as retro? ;)

I swear the only reason nobody comments on "dick moves" made by Apple and Google is that neither one has an 's' in their name to snarkily replace with a dollar sign. (Although I guess in the UK we could do App£e or Goog£e.)

OT: The PC isn't going to die out any time soon. The number of business users is massive, and the vast majority of them aren't going to switch away from Windows without a real change in the market. Linux machines are unpopular with the average office worker and Macs are too expensive.
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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TK421 said:
those of us who are power users.
whats a power user?
[quote/]In terms of usability, I would like to point you to
[/quote]

"Derphammer!"

windows 8 isnt out yet....but I have this kind of fear of everything being "dumbed down"..simplied..locked off...

of coarse its not like they's strip out all the functionality..[small/]right?[/small] I just dont like the flexablity/controll being taken away
 

Entitled

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I think, actually it's pretty likely that the PC will die.

Not really, but in the same way as PC gaming "died" during the past decade, changing from a powerhouse of the industry, into a fringe of indies, old-school niches, facebook-casuals, and a place to dump console ports to, with only 1-2 PC exclusive blockbuster a year.

It did "die" as far as the general "gamer" public is concerned, but meanwhile, it brought a new audience, and also gave something new to it's original audience.

The PC itself, as a machine, can die in the same way. Disappear from the public consciousness, stop being an industrially relevant powerhouse, and be it's own thing.

Also, I don't think that computing power will matter all that much in the future. Just as PC gaming already mostly adapted to the fact that a seven year old machine is the standard, so there are few reasons to build a stronger PC than that, likewise tablets can become a new power standard, and everything will mostly adapt to them.
 

SeaCalMaster

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Ultratwinkie said:
Consoles are over 7 years old. They are laughingstocks now. Any PC now can out perform a console. Especially now that the market opened up through casual and social gaming.
You know that Nintendo has a new console coming out in, like, a month, right? And that Microsoft and Sony are almost certainly working on new consoles to come out in the next year or two? Honestly, this comment makes no sense at all.

Ultratwinkie said:
What makes more sense? A high budget game with low profits or a low budget game with high profits? Its clear casual is the new AAA.
Do you know that high quality "casual" games cost less to make than the standard AAA titles? How do you know this?

OT: I should qualify this by saying that I used to work at Microsoft, and as such, I have some knowledge about how the company works on the inside. I'm not sure what to make of the whole Windows 8 strategy though. I can't tell if MS is merely hedging their bets against the death of the desktop PC as a hypothetical scenario or if they're certain that the desktop PC is dying, thus illustrating that too many people at the top have no idea what they're doing.

From where I sit, it's clear that there are too many people need levels of processing power that you can't get out of a laptop, much less a tablet or a smartphone. I think that the desktop PC will die eventually, but this won't happen until cloud computing takes off (thus removing the need to have lots of processing power locally), and this won't happen for another 10 years at least.
 

Rawne1980

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Did you know, the desktop PC has been "dying" since the 80's.

There is always some new thing that is going to "kill the PC".

Funnily enough, 30 years later, it's still here.

PC is not dying. PC's will be around for a pretty long time.
 

deadish

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Entitled said:
I think, actually it's pretty likely that the PC will die.

Not really, but in the same way as PC gaming "died" during the past decade, changing from a powerhouse of the industry, into a fringe of indies, old-school niches, facebook-casuals, and a place to dump console ports to, with only 1-2 PC exclusive blockbuster a year.

It did "die" as far as the general "gamer" public is concerned, but meanwhile, it brought a new audience, and also gave something new to it's original audience.

The PC itself, as a machine, can die in the same way. Disappear from the public consciousness, stop being an industrially relevant powerhouse, and be it's own thing.

Also, I don't think that computing power will matter all that much in the future. Just as PC gaming already mostly adapted to the fact that a seven year old machine is the standard, so there are few reasons to build a stronger PC than that, likewise tablets can become a new power standard, and everything will mostly adapt to them.
To be frank, PC were never really powerhouses to begin with. They had a surge in popularity in the 90s thanks to Doom and it's "clones". But now that FPS are on consoles too, the PC has more or less slid back into a niche position.

The big money in games has always been the consoles and not much has changed despite there being more PCs now. Even id software a traditionally PC house has started doing console games.

I have to agree, that if there is a threat to consoles, it would be tablets and smartphones - mostly of the "fruit" kind.[1] Everyone has a smartphone and more are getting tablets. We are also hitting diminishing returns with graphics on consoles with tablet/smartphones are quickly reaching "good enough levels". Controls seem to be the only sticking point, but less and less people seem to care - I have seen countless people playing FPS on their iPhones while on the train, no problems.

[1] Apple's devices share a lot of characteristics with consoles. The platform is relatively "stable", there are relatively few iPhone and iPad models. They are mostly "trouble-free" with Apple taking care of nearly everything. The only weakness is that there is little "filtering". On consoles if the manufacturer allows you to develop for them, you are almost guaranteed a "spot on the shelf", on iOS you might get buried under tons of crap - you basically have to hope and pray Apple features you in their "Featured" section; not a very sound business decision when you are spending millions upfront. Speaking of getting buried under tons of crap, a repeat of the 1983 video game crash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983) is very much a possibility.
 

More Fun To Compute

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If Microsoft were scared of the death of the PC they would put a lot more effort into developing and promoting it.

I think that what they are scared of is being too closely associated with the PC. They have an image of being the boring nerdy PC company at a time when their desired marketing message for a whole raft of new products is not that at all.

deadish said:
To be frank, PC were never really powerhouses to begin with. They had a surge in popularity in the 90s thanks to Doom and it's "clones". But now that FPS are on consoles too, the PC has more or less slid back into a niche position.
This is in a way correct but in a more factual way totally wrong.

In terms of home computing power PCs and to slightly lesser degree Macs have always been on the high end in terms of raw computing power (as well as cost).

Consoles and other computers made up for this and outdid PC gaming with specialised gaming and multimedia hardware for a while. But when 3D gaming took off then the hardware of the PC was clearly superior and has kept the lead until now.

When new consoles come out they have a period where they seem really impressive. Because while they are basically PCs with specs below the top of the high end they can run at lower resolutions, framerates and games can be hand optimised by developers due to standard hardware.