PC Shipments Fall 8.6 Percent

[Capt Worley PE]

Worldwide personal-computer shipments fell in the third quarter, reaching their lowest level for the period since 2008, amid lackluster demand from students returning to school, market researcher Gartner Inc. (IT) said.

In the sixth consecutive quarterly decline, global unit sales fell 8.6 percent to 80.3 million, Gartner said yesterday in a statement. Growth in the U.S., where shipments climbed 3.5 percent, helped make up for weak volume in other regions, the Stamford, Connecticut-based firm said.

Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) maintained its No. 1 spot in the worldwide market, followed by Hewlett-Packard Co., which was the top seller in the U.S. PC makers haven’t rolled out new products capable of winning back consumers who have been migrating to cheaper tablets to connect to the Internet, Gartner said. Consumer demand typically rises in the third quarter, boosted by back-to-school purchases.

“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,” Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner, said in the statement. “A greater availability of inexpensive Android tablets attracted first-time consumers in emerging markets, and as supplementary devices in mature markets.”

More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-09/pc-shipments-fall-8-6-percent-amid-tepid-back-to-school-demand.html

 

[knight1fox3]

I wanted to get feedback from the editing staff of my PC magazine regarding this. Here's what they said:

We could just be seeing a market saturation of laptops, with disposable income being shifted to tablets as a complementary device, instead of being saved up towards the purchase of a new laptop. Computing requirements have also leveled off in the last few years, lessening the motivation to replace an older unit.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

In all probability, our next 'computer' purchase would probably be for two tablets, and let our laptop remain an offline tool for printing, word processing and such.

 

[Master slacker]

I'm looking to build our first PC and use Ubuntu (first as well) for the OS. Train wreck or not? Time will tell, I guess.

 

[knight1fox3]

In all probability, our next 'computer' purchase would probably be for two tablets, and let our laptop remain an offline tool for printing, word processing and such.

You can still achieve that functionality with a tablet. Seems the MS Surface would suit your needs. Detachable keyboard, printer support, and obviously MS Office support. The newest revision seems to have fixed quite a few bugs, increased performance, and dropped the price a bit.

I'm looking to build our first PC and use Ubuntu (first as well) for the OS. Train wreck or not? Time will tell, I guess.

Hey! A Linux newbie! Any particular reason you chose Ubuntu? I'm a fan of Knoppix myself. Back in the day when Linux was primarily command based, it was difficult to work with. Now with platforms supporting a GUI, it's much more user-friendly. And quite a bit more cost-efficient. Not to mention you'll never have to worry about any sort of PC infections. You just need to figure out what software you plan to use and it's compatibility (or lack thereof) with Linux.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

In all probability, our next 'computer' purchase would probably be for two tablets, and let our laptop remain an offline tool for printing, word processing and such.

You can still achieve that functionality with a tablet. Seems the MS Surface would suit your needs. Detachable keyboard, printer support, and obviously MS Office support. The newest revision seems to have fixed quite a few bugs, increased performance, and dropped the price a bit.

I was thinking of a Kindle Fire, but I'm open to suggestions. This is probably a ways away from occurring.

 

[knight1fox3]

In all probability, our next 'computer' purchase would probably be for two tablets, and let our laptop remain an offline tool for printing, word processing and such.

You can still achieve that functionality with a tablet. Seems the MS Surface would suit your needs. Detachable keyboard, printer support, and obviously MS Office support. The newest revision seems to have fixed quite a few bugs, increased performance, and dropped the price a bit.

I was thinking of a Kindle Fire, but I'm open to suggestions. This is probably a ways away from occurring.

The Kindle Fire HDX (not released yet) has some impressive specs and a very attractive price tag (rivals my Nexus 7). :thumbs: