sapphirescales
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
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- At My Computer
I'm sure we're all aware of the drastic decline in PC sales around the world. But I'm here to explain why this is so. The picture isn't as bleak as these clickbait articles would have you believe. It's true that people have many different ways to access the internet nowadays, but the PC has its own strengths and they aren't to be ignored. Let's go over this.
I love Microsoft, but they can't be like Google and Apple. They have a huge legacy base, and the world actually NEEDS Windows to run. If Apple went out of business, or Google terminated Android, no big loss. If Microsoft went under, the whole world would be in crisis mode. Microsoft is like a "too big to fail" bank. It's given them an enormous profit potential, but they're too focused on the regular consumer nowadays. So much in fact that they're alienating their core customers (businesses and people that actually use a computer to get WORK done).
Let's face it. Abdu Amoli from India that makes 1/10th of what the average American makes can't afford a smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop, and a dozen other gadgets. He has to make a choice and choose ONE of these devices. Sure a smartphone can't do everything that a PC can, but he needs to be able to call and text people more than he needs a big screen and comfortable keyboard. So he doesn't own a PC. He owns a cheap Android smartphone. This is why PC sales are falling around the world.
Microsoft needs to ignore Abdu Amoli and others like him. But instead they've become OBSESSED with getting him to buy their phones and buy apps from their store. This is the whole reason behind Windows 8 and 10. But the fact of the matter is, Abdu is a simple fellow. He doesn't care much about technology and just wants it to work. He's going to go with the cheapest phone that will do what he wants and ignore everything else.
Nothing against Abdu or others like him, but they're what you call "bottom feeders." If you want to remain profitable, you should ignore the bottom feeders and go after the customers with the deeper pockets.
If you take a look at PC sales from the US only, they're only down like 2.9%. This can easily be explained as a normal economic fluctuation. The only people that are abandoning PC's are the people that can't afford them. Take a look at this site and read this article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044307/the-pc-fights-back-u-s-sales-decline-is-slowing.html
"Even more heartening, the drop in shipments was considerably smaller in the United States than in the rest of the world: Gartner says second-quarter U.S. shipments declined by just 1.4 percent year over year, while IDC says U.S. shipments dropped by 1.9 percent year over year in Q2."
I know this article was from 2013, but take a look at this one from 2015:
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS40909316
"The U.S. PC market fell -4.3% year over year to 17.4 million units."
I don't know about you, but to my customers, their PC has become an appliance. Do people go and replace their refrigerators every couple of years because the new ones are shinier? Of course not! They wait until it breaks. With the economy being what it is, more and more people are looking to repair their old computer rather than buy a new one. So they come to repair shops like ours. If their system isn't worth fixing, we usually sell them a refurbished system. This means that their "new" PC purchase isn't registered by IDC.
Another explanation for the drop in PC sales is the fact that people are using them LESS. A person that used to spend 6 hours a day on their PC now uses their smartphone/tablet for casual browsing. This means that the PC probably gets 2 hours a day of use rather than 6, so it lasts longer.
More and more people are doing custom builds nowadays. It's become so easy to build your own computer, and we're having more and more people ask about them.
One last explanation is poorer people here in the U.S. The U.S. has poor people too, and I'm sure a lot of them have decided that a smartphone is "good enough" for what they do. They'd like to have a PC, but it's viewed as a luxury item rather than a necessity so they settle for their $80 smartphone, just like Abdu in India does.
In other words, don't panic people. I just had a record month last month, and my business shows absolutely ZERO signs of slowing down. I've done more custom builds this year than any year prior, and those don't show up in IDC's numbers either.
I love Microsoft, but they can't be like Google and Apple. They have a huge legacy base, and the world actually NEEDS Windows to run. If Apple went out of business, or Google terminated Android, no big loss. If Microsoft went under, the whole world would be in crisis mode. Microsoft is like a "too big to fail" bank. It's given them an enormous profit potential, but they're too focused on the regular consumer nowadays. So much in fact that they're alienating their core customers (businesses and people that actually use a computer to get WORK done).
Let's face it. Abdu Amoli from India that makes 1/10th of what the average American makes can't afford a smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop, and a dozen other gadgets. He has to make a choice and choose ONE of these devices. Sure a smartphone can't do everything that a PC can, but he needs to be able to call and text people more than he needs a big screen and comfortable keyboard. So he doesn't own a PC. He owns a cheap Android smartphone. This is why PC sales are falling around the world.
Microsoft needs to ignore Abdu Amoli and others like him. But instead they've become OBSESSED with getting him to buy their phones and buy apps from their store. This is the whole reason behind Windows 8 and 10. But the fact of the matter is, Abdu is a simple fellow. He doesn't care much about technology and just wants it to work. He's going to go with the cheapest phone that will do what he wants and ignore everything else.
Nothing against Abdu or others like him, but they're what you call "bottom feeders." If you want to remain profitable, you should ignore the bottom feeders and go after the customers with the deeper pockets.
If you take a look at PC sales from the US only, they're only down like 2.9%. This can easily be explained as a normal economic fluctuation. The only people that are abandoning PC's are the people that can't afford them. Take a look at this site and read this article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044307/the-pc-fights-back-u-s-sales-decline-is-slowing.html
"Even more heartening, the drop in shipments was considerably smaller in the United States than in the rest of the world: Gartner says second-quarter U.S. shipments declined by just 1.4 percent year over year, while IDC says U.S. shipments dropped by 1.9 percent year over year in Q2."
I know this article was from 2013, but take a look at this one from 2015:
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS40909316
"The U.S. PC market fell -4.3% year over year to 17.4 million units."
I don't know about you, but to my customers, their PC has become an appliance. Do people go and replace their refrigerators every couple of years because the new ones are shinier? Of course not! They wait until it breaks. With the economy being what it is, more and more people are looking to repair their old computer rather than buy a new one. So they come to repair shops like ours. If their system isn't worth fixing, we usually sell them a refurbished system. This means that their "new" PC purchase isn't registered by IDC.
Another explanation for the drop in PC sales is the fact that people are using them LESS. A person that used to spend 6 hours a day on their PC now uses their smartphone/tablet for casual browsing. This means that the PC probably gets 2 hours a day of use rather than 6, so it lasts longer.
More and more people are doing custom builds nowadays. It's become so easy to build your own computer, and we're having more and more people ask about them.
One last explanation is poorer people here in the U.S. The U.S. has poor people too, and I'm sure a lot of them have decided that a smartphone is "good enough" for what they do. They'd like to have a PC, but it's viewed as a luxury item rather than a necessity so they settle for their $80 smartphone, just like Abdu in India does.
In other words, don't panic people. I just had a record month last month, and my business shows absolutely ZERO signs of slowing down. I've done more custom builds this year than any year prior, and those don't show up in IDC's numbers either.
