Rebooting the PC industry: Tablets force a shift

There is actually a VERY good reason why sales have slumped, and it isn't only the economy. I can tell you as a PC repairman with 20+ years in the biz that once PCs reached dual cores they became "good enough" for the vast majority of folks.

Look at yourselves, what do you do with your PC? If you are like most you go to YouTube, you post to FB, you check your webmal, and that's about it. Frankly ANY PC that is dual core will do these jobs while twiddling its thumbs most of the time! Even my two boys which both game are using my "hand me downs" which are two Pentium Dual Cores with $60 ATI graphics cards (an HD4830 for the casual gamer, an HD4850 which I highly recommend and use myself for the hardcore gamer) and frankly their games are all smooth as butter, and these are 6 year old CPUs!

It is no surprise then that PCs sales have dropped off some, it is simply folks are getting their money's worth from PCs now. I have already converted several customers to Win 7 simply because their PCs from 4-5 years ago were more than "good enough" and with Win 7 they'll have all the latest features and get updates until 2020. But trying to say it has anything to do with tablets is like saying "This new moped will kill truck sales!" as one has NOTHING to do with the other. Tablets are oversized cells, good for consuming content. PCs are good for CREATING content, be it at work or at home. It is simply that until a new "killer app" comes along that needs quad cores or better PCs are 'good enough" for most as is.

It's probable that tablets may replace laptops in many light computing situations, and that will definitely impact PC sales. I see tablets as capable of handling my routine needs, but I'm not likely to ditch my desktops quite yet.

substantive content still comes from the workstation, not the latest gadgets for valley girls.

its impossible to kill desktop.. its a stand alone so its bigger and faster performance. you cant have an accurate design/ detailing in just tablet alone.

Tablets are fun for little things in the short run but try typing a whole word document or do extensive Photoshop editing on a glass screen with your finger. Like Dango said here, the most extensive material comes from workstations.

The pads are cute and nice toys with fun features; but you'll have to pry my well-powered desktop with its full size keyboard and 23-inch screen out of my cold dead hands. When it comes to real work there's no substitute for a well-equipped desktop PC.

A computer only 3 years old is still more than powerful enough to run almost anything a user can throw at it. Now you can upgrade the ram, then the video card, then the CPU, and you are still running topend gear without buying an all-new computer. My XP box started out as a dual core, but now has a quad and can run anything the latest I7 can run, despite being 5 years old.

The need for all new machines every 2 years has passed. Computers now need replacing every 5. Customers know this since everything they buy runs fine on the old gear still, so they see no reason to upgrade. Businesses work the same way. So the companies in the computer biz will need to adapt to the new reality of less frequent upgrades than in decades past; no amount of wishing is going to make people with no money who still has a perfectly fine computer go out and drop cash on new gear that they don't need yet.

If you want the best of both worlds, use your PC for high end intense computing, like for PhotoShop and a full office suite. Then buy a tablet and mirror your PC with it. Now you have your desktop on your tablet.

The only thing that will sell more desktop is a fundamentally different OS. This OS would have to shatter all the traditional hardware performance benchmark requirements of existing operating systems. It would have to be so massive, so complex, and so utterly cool, that the technology to operate it could only fit in a desktop machine.

Other than that, sales in the current PC market has absolutely nothing to do with "economic anxiety". The article is dead wrong. We don't buy PC's because the need has diminished. In the past, we had to keep up with the hardware, because older machines wouldn't run the better software. These differences were significant, unlike today. A good amount of people skipped Vista entirely, because XP was fine. Many are skipping 7, because XP is still a fine OS. Then we have MAC, 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 10, 10.05, 10.07, 10.1, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 11, etc... Let's face it, most users surf the net, check emails, and run office suites. How much could these basic utilities improve at this point? Not much.

screw apple. Their products have horrible specs. However I cannot argue with their software. Though Mac's and iPads are genuinly bad for many consumers because they do not let you open them up to fix it yourself and force you to be dependant on their trained customer service agents. So no matter how simple the fix, you're out $100...

Just built a 6 core Intel 980 extreme a couple of months ago with a pair of Nvidia 570s. I see no point in stepping backwards to the slow 1990s technology of the pads. Windows PCs will be around as long as they can blow the doors off of everything else offered.

Apples Steve Jobs considered it an "post pc era" because they earn a lot from his IPAD tablets.so this time around, no other tablet compete it fairly. but we put in scenery, tablets are just a mere toy,it will end soon its hotness...... PC is more flexible in nature because its simply a stand alone, you can put all stuff to have an intimate satisfaction.... unlike ipad is like an mp3. its good from the start but totally waste.... why?
limited perfomance regarding speed, memory, power supply and even sofware,; in accurate designing aspect, you cant do that on tablet,...... its still keyboard and mouse have a better performance medium....:)

I barely use my Laptop at home after the iPad, most of the things I do when at home is on my iPad: basic web browsing, RSS reader, Email, Twitter, Facebook and e-commerce. All of this is one gesture away, no boot time, light and no need for physical keyboard.

ANDROID RULES! MS has been charging way to much for windows for years. Soon this will end as ANDROID takes over. At long last!

oh come on! When a tablet can replace my tactile feedback keyboard and do the calculations, multitasking and so on on a stretchable screen to 32" - yeah then I'll dump my multitude of PC's and laptops. Got the magazine too - its cute, convenient and great - when I'm off work - but at work or play at home - no thanks - I'll keep my PC and upgrade one more time around - then I'll take a look at what's out there. Tablets are cool but cool wears off - functionality never does.

Pad devices are social media devices and suffer as productivity machines due to lack of analog input devices such as standard keyboards, mice and game controllers.

The day is coming when Pad devices can replace your pc, but don't ditch your notebook yet. Don't put all your eggs in one basket either. If that pad is destroyed, lost or stolen, your life goes with it.

@Graham what in the heck are you talking about? Since when did PC's become "safe" and last time I checked you could still access data on a tablet even when its not connected to the internet. Your comment has confused me.

This is bad for freedom of choice and ensuring your data really is your data. While the PCs are old and traditional these days, you can at least make sure your data is safe and can still use it if you dont have an internet connection.

I am glad all this is happening. For long, m$ and intel have maintained a monopoly on defining what is a user facing computing experience. And they have abused that monopoly ( duopoly, actually).

We finally have a chance to move away from that paradigm into a world where there are multiple vendors and providers and where innovation moves forward, not dictated by m$ or intel.

I love my ipad2!.For me apple is simply the best and trendsetter.Samsung is a mere poor copycat.