Opinion: Can Windows 8 Save the PC?

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I wasn't aware that the PC needed saving. How many billion of them are there around the world again?

Too many, and sadly, that's the whole point. I don't want to side with Gruener and his tablet delirium, but the average consumer is pretty satisfied with his Core 2 Duo and he has a PS3/Xbox 360 for gaming.

However, I was enraged with this article and I've asked at least ten people today whether they'd like tablets to replace desktops. The answers were all clear "NO"s for following reasons:

1) Screen size and touch screen controls (fail)
2) Price ($400 for a 1 GHz dual core with 16-32GB storage? GTFO)
3) Keyboard (if you connect a keyboard to a tablet, might as well get a laptop...)
4) Much easier to fix the desktop (one thing broke - replace; doesn't work for tablet)
5) Much more work can be done on dekstop
6) Inferior OS and software running on tablets (cr"apps" instead of full sized programs everyone is used to)

All of these people were "common users". All they do is browsing, e-mail, movies, Office, music and a couple of them uses language learning software and dictionaries. Here's your common user and he'd prefer to stay on the desktop or on the laptop, but no tablet. They all use different OSs (XP, 7, Ubuntu), but no one wants PC to die and move to the tablet just because tablets are so fashionable and cool.

So, as far as I understand, tablets are indeed an artificially created, forced market. It doesn't fulfill any purpose save Angry Birds and it doesn't introduce anything new in terms of getting work done (and don't give me the BS about how your company bought a bunch of iPads and now you make notes on the iPad instead of a notebook... this isn't productive at all).

Your cr[strike]y[/strike]isis in US? Exactly because the silly US citizens don't understand how much money they can spend and on what. They take more and more credits from banks, and they end up in $h!t. Oh yeah, let's get a shiny new MacBook, a tablet, this and that... sure, they're toys, but they're so cool... oops, we're outta cash, let's make a loan or something.

 

[nachamiyahu]

I feel that at this point in time that it would be foolish for Microsoft to release another OS for PC. Windows 7 is only 2 years old and they wanna go ahead and release ANOTHER operating system? Gimme a break. It feels like Microsoft wants to go the way of some big-name video game companies who release games every year rather than every two or three years,lowering the quality of their product in the process. I'm not chunking out 100 bucks every year just to pay for what we could just call a big windows update. If Microsoft wants to release a new OS then they should release one that competes in the tablet/smartphone market and leave Windows 7 alone. They're lacking in that regard for sure. Metro UI is probably a great idea and all, but even in the day and age where we have all these touch screen devices, the PC is still not ready to make this leap forward. At least not until the prices of touchscreen monitors comes down considerably. I will not sacrifice on a smaller screen just to be able to use touch gestures, when I can pay less money and buy a much larger monitor to enjoy my videogames on.

 

[deck]

Opinion: Can Wolfgang write a relevant article?

 

[marraco]

The PC don't need Windows 8 to survive.

AND, PC gaming is again the most profitable, growing more than consoles, even with piratery.

Technorati - Gaming Sales Boom in Spite of a Gloomy Economy

PC gaming alliance 2010 report on PC gaming growth:

"The spotlight has definitely shifted back to the PC game market"


This chart was took from ignitegt.com with data from NDP Research:

 

[reggieray]

Save the PC from what? Idiot. If I were to pursue this and entertain the notion that the PC is deing I would have to say Linux will save the PC from OS's that are in the back pocket of the FEDS, OS's like OS X and Windows for example.

 

[nao1120]

Ya, "this post" PC era. I still have no use for a tablet that you can get in a smartphone. I am still rocking a Q9550 which was well worth the purchase before it was discontinued - It runs just as well as any quad core out there, and basically the same as a i920. Ever notice the mac vs pc commercials stopped once vista was out of the picture. Nothing to complain about right?? Windows 7 is awesome, windows 8 im sure will utilize all those features, and if i plan to use it, it'll be minus the panel mode....Which lets face it, is meant for a phone.

 

[spookyman]

The traditional Desktop PC is slowly on the way out.

The Personal Computer has morphed into tablets, smartphones, smart TV's and laptops.

No the PC will never disappear. It just changes.

 

[Guest]

W8 + Dell Inspiron Duo (or similar design) - Atom + AMD Fusion = Best of both worlds!

 

[noblerabbit]

PCs don't need saving, you bunch of Apple Elitist Tablet Propagandists.

 

[darkxuy]

apparently not from crappy "journalism"..

 

[aldaia]

I'm quite sure my opinion will get many negative votes, but I don't write to be popular. Contrary to the popular opinion of this forum (I'm just surprised to realize how narrow-minded tech geeks may be) PC's can't be saved cos they are already dead as the most widespread computing device.

In the past mainframes where the only computing device available, but they died in the 60's early 70's cause the bulk of the market shifted to minicomputers. Minicomputers died in late 80's cause most of the market switched to workstations and servers. In turn workstations & servers where replaced by PC's (we could say that today a workstation is a high end PC, and servers are based on PC technology).

The fact that mainframes are dead doesn't mean there there is no market for them. IBM still sells mainframes, and the mainframe division is quite healthy, only that there are many more PCs sold every year than mainframes.

In 2010, world sales of PCs amounted to 350 million devices, while the mobile market amounted to 1600 million devices (90% of them where ARM inside). Besides that, the PC market is expected to grow by about 3% yearly, while the mobile industry is growing at 10% yearly.

The PC is already dead, which doesn't mean that its market will disappear completely. PC market will still be big money for a long time, only that it's not anymore the dominant computing device.

 

[happyballz]

LOL WUT article

 

[captaincharisma]

The traditional Desktop PC is slowly on the way out.

The Personal Computer has morphed into tablets, smartphones, smart TV's and laptops.

No the PC will never disappear. It just changes.

yea...........ok........ so in the future the only computers that will be left are tablets with weak CPU's and no memory on screens that are smaller than 10". yea this will happen

FAIL

 

[pale paladin]

I am seriously sick of these PC doomsday prophets. Understanding the trends regarding the decline of PC sales should include understanding the current economic climate and ultimately understanding the customer base of each platform before we start speculating on any real decline that may be the precursor of an extinction of a platform entirely.

Firstly, show me your credentials Mr. Wolfgang Gruener, that gives you any real insight in the speculation of market trends. Do you have proof of what you are saying or is your point based on inference and speculation. Perhaps we should look at how the typical home PC user is economically disadvantaged comparatively to the average Mac user.
So wouldn't it seem logical to assume that while the current economic downturn is affecting many Americans, it has affected the middle to lower class citizens enough that they cannot legitimize purchasing new technology when what they are currently using is sufficient for the very basic things they use a computer for?

 

[x Heavy]

I have carefully thought over this. I say PC does not need saving. Indeed Builders like me who carefully consider every piece of hardware with the goal of running a war game (For example BF3) to the absolute max to victory in battle. That is a art that will keep PC alive for decades to come.

System administrators who are paid to deploy dozens of boxes or even hundreds could care less about what goes into PC unless a part failed. Take College. They simply have Dell come in and do it all once a year. I have the cardboard boxes to prove it that overflows the dumpster.

What's leftover gets shipped down to the local Electronics Expo, aka the junkyard of dead hardware for the public who knows little but wants to learn. I suppose everyone interested in PC has to start somewhere right?

As far as touch, it is mindless and does not really carry much weight. I type on a keyboard while making a sentence in my head to convey a message. That counts for something. Now if I was touching a screen, I would need to windex it once in a while... like every day. LCD and HDMI Monitors don't like to be touched.

If Game Developers can create a sort of panel inside a Helicopter, Fighter or Shipboard system where a gamer can access subsystems far faster than entering commands, then a touch screen during battle will be useful.

If Medical necessity requires a touch screen because a variety of conditions that makes ordinary typing and compute-ring a endurance exercise in time and pain tolerance then touch screens are great.

I am not prepared to say that PC is dead. I have grown up through the great Atari crash where pallets of games would not sell for 3.99 at Kmart (The Walmart of our time.. 40 years ago or less) and were all dumped. Again the Nintendo crashed along with the Coin Op arcade crash.

Hell, Arcade gamers lived on quarters and truancy. We were shunned from a very society which itself was being in a position of dumbing down everything so that anyone can not be left behind.

Now here we are, talking about a crash. What crash? The Socket 478 CPU that no one wants to sell for 35.00 that millions of PC's will need as replacement in the future? No! Force the poor schmucks to replace those Chips with something costing far more and essentially resuscitate the industry by forcing out observable parts in favor of easy plug and play that requires yet more hardware.

DOS and Windows was a miracle in their day. Absolutely nothing wasted. Today it's gigabytes of code and bloat seeking a return to simplicity and ease of use. Each objective requires even more man hours that are essentially being converted over to Robotic labor if possible.

No the PC is not the Crash we seek. The real crash is the lack of knowledge passed down from generation to generation as each young child giggles and picks parts off Newegg and builds a box before 10 years old.

With such a easy living, Schools and all associated issues should be retired.

College is nothing more than being told what you are going to do, what results to expect and you ape/follow ... monkey see monkey do. You still don't know what you have done when your college day is done do you?

Maybe if you touched something meaningful then you will learn. It will not be with Windows 8.

 

[ram1009]

What this author views as "death" is simply the maturation of the PC. The era of extreme innovation is over. Software & hardware development has plateaued. People (myself included) aren't going to spend large sums of money every year for the meager "improvements" currently being promoted. Simply changing the keystrokes or mouse clicks a little won't get my money. When my computers no longer do something I need them to do I will make whatever changes are required. Portables by any description will never replace desktops. Heat will always be the pivotal comodity. Anything you can do with a portable you can do more of with a desktop because you can cool a desktop in ways you can't cool a portable. End of story.

 

[malphas]

Tom's commenters really do live in a bubble, where they seem to think building your own desktop is the standard way of owning a PC, rather than an extreme niche. I don't like the reality of the siuation but I'm still aware of it, as are the other negatively voted comments in this thread, and the original article itself.

For at least the last half decade the mainstream PC has been a cheap 15 inch laptop with integrated graphics, not a desktop with a discrete high end graphics card. And now even this is being eroded as the vast majority of users need's can be fulfilled with a tablet, or even a smartphone. Most people use a computer for Facebook, Youtube, online shopping, email and messaging, all of which don't require a PC in the traditional sense.

We've probably already reached, or are at least approaching peak saturation of the PC market in the western world. The PC has gone from a business/enthusiast/education tool, to an everyday household appliance and now it's going to shift back towards the business and enthusiast spectrum, as average people turn towards devices like tablets. There'll always be a market for PCs for professionals and businesses (it's not like you can use Photoshop or Pro Tools on a smartphone) but I think the days of it being a mass market thing are coming to a close.

 

[malphas]

[citation][nom]x Heavy[/nom]I have carefully thought over this. I say PC does not need saving. Indeed Builders like me who carefully consider every piece of hardware with the goal of running a war game (For example BF3) to the absolute max to victory in battle. That is a art that will keep PC alive for decades to come.[/citation]
This is exactly what I'm talking about, completely and utterly delusional. As if a small sector of enthusiasts can possibly keep a gigantic industry that pours in billions of dollars into R&D and fab production by upgrading their rigs every six months.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]nachamiyahu[/nom]I feel that at this point in time that it would be foolish for Microsoft to release another OS for PC. Windows 7 is only 2 years old and they wanna go ahead and release ANOTHER operating system? Gimme a break. It feels like Microsoft wants to go the way of some big-name video game companies who release games every year rather than every two or three years,lowering the quality of their product in the process. I'm not chunking out 100 bucks every year just to pay for what we could just call a big windows update. If Microsoft wants to release a new OS then they should release one that competes in the tablet/smartphone market and leave Windows 7 alone. They're lacking in that regard for sure. Metro UI is probably a great idea and all, but even in the day and age where we have all these touch screen devices, the PC is still not ready to make this leap forward. At least not until the prices of touchscreen monitors comes down considerably. I will not sacrifice on a smaller screen just to be able to use touch gestures, when I can pay less money and buy a much larger monitor to enjoy my videogames on.[/citation]
Microsoft's release policy on Windows has always been a 2 to 3 years update cycle, 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7.
The odd one out? XP.
Because of a single version of Windows being without an upgrade for 8 years meaning people go tused to it, Microsoft is simply returning to the status quo.

If you want to argue real semantics however, you could claim that XP Media Centre and the various Service Packs constituted additional versions that adhered to the 2-3 year cycle, but let's not.

 

[rwky_92]

Personal Opinion? PC WILL NEVER DIE!

because, compare the most performance laptop with a same performance desktop, look at the prices, and you'll feel the PC, buy for the money u bought that laptop, a PC! and you'll fell the PC'S power.

When a notebook will hold 16core processore, 32gb ram, 3 graphic cards, and a few HDD with a few TB on each, then the PC will hold 100+ core, 100+gb ram, and so on...

get the idea?

 

[dola74]

I swear I am so sick of these can we save the PC

Dude Please get your head out of your ass the PC is on FIRE and will always be the High End Gaming Rig & Will Never DIE. The True Gamer has it all every console and a sick Rig to really enjoy all the eye candy that only a PC can deliver Douche Bag.

 

[malphas]

[citation][nom]rwky_92[/nom]Personal Opinion? PC WILL NEVER DIE!because, compare the most performance laptop with a same performance desktop, look at the prices, and you'll feel the PC, buy for the money u bought that laptop, a PC! and you'll fell the PC'S power.When a notebook will hold 16core processore, 32gb ram, 3 graphic cards, and a few HDD with a few TB on each, then the PC will hold 100+ core, 100+gb ram, and so on... get the idea?[/citation]
Laptops are PC's, the topic is geared more towards PC's being eroded by non PC computing like tablets and smartphones, not just desktops giving way to laptops. However, on even on that topic the facts disagree with you, the majority of PCs sold today are laptops, and desktop market share continues to decline unfortunately, despite the fact you're correct about a desktop being more bang for your buck.

 

[malphas]

[citation][nom]dola74[/nom]I swear I am so sick of these can we save the PC Dude Please get your head out of your ass the PC is on FIRE and will always be the High End Gaming Rig & Will Never DIE. The True Gamer has it all every console and a sick Rig to really enjoy all the eye candy that only a PC can deliver Douche Bag.[/citation]
How is that relevant? If PCs are only used by enthusiasts or "True Gamers" or whatever then by industry and most people's standards that would be considered dead. Not to mention PC games have basically become console ports that require far less relative horsepower to play at full graphic settings than they did ten years ago, when you really did need a high end PC to play a new game.

 

[anonymous32111]

Can Windows 8 Save the PC? No, it doesn't need saving, stfu.

Not mine at least.

 

[anonymous32111]

Wow my whole comment got cut off.. now I sound like an asshole who doesnt even make a point. Fail.

anyways point i was trying to make, Windows 7 = Office 2003, Windows 8 = Office 2007. Everybody hates Office 2007 (except people with poor eyesight and giant fingers with touchscreen monitors?)