{"id":50219,"date":"2014-02-07T08:37:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T13:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=50219"},"modified":"2014-02-07T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T13:39:02","slug":"pcs-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2014\/02\/pcs-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Are PCs truly on their way out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

News reports earlier this week is that Sony is selling its Vaio PC line and production will eventually stop. Could this be a signal that the PC business is dead?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Small,Over the last few days, most of the major tech publications have been reporting on the electronics giant, Sony\u2019s intention to sell its PC business, the Vaio line, to a Japanese investment group. The Sony Vaio line, which comprises both desktop and laptop computers, is one of the pricier brands on the market, but it has been able to maintain relatively good sales \u2013 7.5 million units in 2013 (Source: Time<\/a>). \u00a0However, when the purchase is completed, which should be by March 2014, the plan is to scale back the business drastically \u2013 sell PCs to the Japanese market only \u2013 whilst the new owners re-strategize. Eventually though, production of new PCs is expected to stop, sales will be discontinued, and new product design and development halted (Source: Time<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Although the above course of action, so far, is specific to Sony, could this be a signal of what is to come in the PC industry? Is the PC business dead?<\/p>\n

Free fall of PC sales<\/h3>\n

In recent years, PC sales have been declining steadily year on year, and is expected to continue:<\/p>\n

Research firm IDC issued an alarming report Wednesday for PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., saying world-wide shipments of laptops and desktops fell 14% in the first quarter from a year earlier. That is the sharpest drop since IDC began tracking this data in 1994 and marks the fourth straight quarter of declines.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gartner Inc., a rival research firm, estimated global shipments sank 11.2%, which it called the worst drop since the first quarter of 2001..<\/em><\/p>\n

(Source: Wall Street Journal<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The current and still declining position of the PC business may be prompting businesses to re-examine their continued viability and to figure out ways to retool their operations. An earlier example of this could be PC manufacturer, Dell. Late last year, its founder, Michael Dell, successful fought to remove the firm from public trading, thus re-privatising the business<\/a>. In doing so, it is expected that Dell (the company) will become more agile and able to more easily re-position itself to respond to global trends.<\/p>\n

PC\u2013mobile substitution<\/h3>\n

Suffice it to say, the decline of the PC businesses has not been occurring in a vacuum. Correspondingly, sales of mobile devices, specifically tablet computers and smartphones, have been on the rise. According to Gartner<\/a>, tablet sales were expected to increase by 68% in 2013, whilst 48% jump in smartphone sales was anticipated in the same period.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the analyst firm has been of the view that declining PC sales in favour of more portable devices is not a temporary trend, but a \u201creflection of a long term change in user behaviour\u201d<\/i>:<\/p>\n

The proliferation of lower-priced tablets and their growing capability is accelerating the shift from PCs to tablets. “While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device … As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Source: Gartner<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

PCs might never become obsolete\u2026 at least for now<\/h3>\n

Although smartphones and tablets have been dominating the market and driving consumer behaviour, they still have some functionality constraints, which might make them less suitable for certain situations. For example, relatively speaking, PCs still currently have considerably greater processing power than smartphones and tablets. Hence they are still likely to be preferred in circumstances where large volumes of information must be processed. Another consideration could be pricing. Again, consumers are likely to get more \u2018bang for their buck\u2019, i.e. get better technical specifications for the price with a PC (be it a desktop or laptop) than the currently popular portable devices.<\/p>\n

In summary, today\u2019s consumers might be feeling the pressure to regularly change their smartphone or tablet \u2013 get the newest models and the latest bells and whistles. However, they might no longer be doing the same with their PCs, as Gartner suggested, evidenced by the consistent decline in sales. Although PC sales may never return to earlier levels, they are, and will into the foreseeable future, still be needed, especially when considerable data entry and manipulation is required.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image credit:\u00a0<\/em> chollingsworth3<\/a> (flickr)<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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