News 8.8 million AI-capable PCs shipped in Q2 2024 — firm believes the AI PC market is on track to ship around 44 million units

[Admin]

AI PCs are already quite popular, unlike software that can exploit them.

8.8 million AI-capable PCs shipped in Q2 2024 — firm believes the AI PC market is on track to ship around 44 million units : Read more

 

[Giroro]

I don't think it's correct to say AI PCs are popular. I doubt many people are going out of the way to buy a PC specifically because it happens to be "AI-capable".
They are just buying a PC like usual, and the CPU (or GPU) just happens to have an NPU in it, by default.

If anything, it's surprising that the penetration of this AI hardware is so low. I would think the percentage of people getting this hardware on accident would have been a lot higher, so I wonder if people are specifically avoiding the PCs that are being marketed for their AI capability, and are buying last gen laptops instead.

 

[Eximo]

Three generations of AMD laptops with NPUs, and AI aside, they have the specs I would be shopping for at the moment. Decent, efficient processing cores, and the better iGPU for light gaming and graphics tasks.

 

[Notton]

The title ignores the fact there is no SKU with an entirely disabled NPU.
It's like Intel claiming GPU dominance in laptops when there is no -F SKU.

 

[DavidLejdar]

I don't think it's correct to say AI PCs are popular. I doubt many people are going out of the way to buy a PC specifically because it happens to be "AI-capable".
They are just buying a PC like usual, and the CPU (or GPU) just happens to have an NPU in it, by default.

If anything, it's surprising that the penetration of this AI hardware is so low. I would think the percentage of people getting this hardware on accident would have been a lot higher, so I wonder if people are specifically avoiding the PCs that are being marketed for their AI capability, and are buying last gen laptops instead.

Yeah, not everyone of the 14% may have been specifically looking for "AI-capable". But like-wise, not everyone of the 86% may have been specifically avoiding it. In the latter case, it may just have been the cheaper option many went for. Like, when one goes shopping for a headset, and goes with a cheaper one, that supports only Stereo, and uses that as long as duct tape works... and then ends up with a better product anyhow, not wanting to go back now.

And the 14% may have been partially business customers, who already have some form of AI in use. E.g. our colleagues in Burnsville and Fort Lauderdale already use some AI, implemented with help from colleagues here in Berlin. And with such "boosts" here and there, it then needs newer hardware at least at some points. And if there are further improvements, for personal use, that might make more people interested to upgrade, for a specific purpose.

 

[ThomasKinsley]

Smartphones have had NPUs for years now (approximately 5-8 years now). I'm sure a headline could advertise this as a success for AI-capable devices when in reality people just wanted to browse the web, play games, and text their friends.

But I want to draw attention to the image included in the article because this one interests and concerns me at the same time. It's not asking customers whether they prefer a CoPilot key. It's asking OEMs what they think customers will want. They could've asked people directly, but I suspect they did not because most people would say something like, "What is a CoPilot key and what does it do?" A lot of this "AI craze" is still at the OEM level and not at the consumer level.

 

[jeffy9987]

the 11% suggest that some baller oems do exist among the sheep

 

[KyaraM]

Smartphones have had NPUs for years now (approximately 5-8 years now). I'm sure a headline could advertise this as a success for AI-capable devices when in reality people just wanted to browse the web, play games, and text their friends.

But I want to draw attention to the image included in the article because this one interests and concerns me at the same time. It's not asking customers whether they prefer a CoPilot key. It's asking OEMs what they think customers will want. They could've asked people directly, but I suspect they did not because most people would say something like, "What is a CoPilot key and what does it do?" A lot of this "AI craze" is still at the OEM level and not at the consumer level.

Yeah, as far I'm concerned, they can stick their copilot nonsense where the sun never shines...

I now also own a CPU with an NPU a Ryzen 5 7640HS. The NPU stays at 0% load at all times, because all I do on the laptop is game and friggin browse the web. It was simply something that came pre-packaged with the CPU/laptop, not something I wanted. Because I don't want anything to do wit AI, period.