Opinion: Can You Blame the PC Crash on the iPad?

Can You Blame the PC Crash on the iPad? No.. The Ipad is so under powered compared to a nice laptop or a desktop. I like a huge hd in my system a good bit of ram and a killer gpu. The Ipad has none of these.

Today most consumers want to just get on the Internet, check facebook or check emails. The PC or even laptop have become the slowest part of the equation. The instant on feature that tablets have and even smart phones out weigh their slower processors and lack of memory.

Someone asked me a similar question a couple months ago, it was around the reason I carry an iPad to most of my meetings, the answer was simple, it does what I need it to do fairly quickly.

LOL. I'm so used to this kind of article now...

To answer the title: nope.

It's the software development cycle that doesn't require "new hardware" to perform decently.

People "don't need" more than what today's being offered to them. MS Office works fine even on Athlon X2 from the s939 era with 2GB of RAM, so imagine a CPU after that era... A C2D or C2Q still delivers for office work. Hell, even for development, as long as you have 4GB+ RAM you're still fine.

So, nope. From my POV I'd say it's a software thing. Apple and in particular the iPad are just "anomalies" in the long PC develop timeline.

Cheers!

The place where innovation is needed is in I/O. Where are my 3D high definition contact lenses? Why can't I talk to my computer (well, I CAN, but it's stupid most of the time...faster to type.) Where is my holographic user interface that lets me wave my arms around and drag glowing icons through the air? Whirring boxes and pictures on a screen are so...last century.

No, no I can't. Article closed.

No,
Crap Economy
+
5 year old dual core computers run typical software just fine
+
Normal people (not enthusiasts like us) get annoyed, not excited, when the OS changes.
=
WTF would I ever upgrade? My computer does everything I need it to.

The best case I can make to convince people to upgrade their system is getting a multi-core CPU and an OS that can multi-task just so they can switch between apps.

Pretty much everyone has that now, so why would they ever upgrade?

The PC industry is it's own worst enemy for incremental technology increases. eg: Intel removed hyper-threading from 1 gen, and then re-added hyper-threading to get some more sales on that same gen? That is banditry that does not go unnoticed.

From my perspective, they did their best to penetrate all markets, succeeded, and those markets are now over saturated. There are strategies to follow when this happens in business, but to me it seems nothing really has changed in the market for 30 years, with the exception of price drops.

People are under the impression that everyone is a power user and that since the tablet devices areen't as powerfull, they will never take over the market. What you forget is the average person (80-90% of computer users) does not need speed, they just need to access emails, youtube, netflix, etc. The tablets and smartphones can do that.

I have build my own pcs for the last 15 years and I have found that most of my access is using my acer tablet, my wife uses her Ipad 2 and our notebooks and netbooks basically sit around collecting dust. Occasionally, my wife might go onto the desktop to type an important letter but that is it. So, to me, the market is just going to get smaller and smaller for the pc, and bigger for the tablet (not neccessarily just the Ipad).

The lack of growth in the PC sector is due to one simple fact-computers have gotten so powerful, and Windows has gotten so stable, that it's very rare to have any sort of problem with them, and they are fast enough to handle pretty much anything you throw at them, so the average consumer has no reason to go out and buy a new PC every couple of years. That 5 year old Dell is still chugging happily along, and still runs Word and Netflix like a champ. And in actuality, even though I'm a hardcore gamer, the only thing I've replaced in my PC in years is the GPU. Nothing else needs to be upgraded.

I need one of these so bad because I can't go 5 minutes without checking my facebook. I was like at the like drivethru yesterday and I so wished I like had one so I could check my facebook. I was like, "Oh no, it has been 5 minutes since I checked my facebook."

that's a little naive, wouldn't you say? you're assumign every consumer out there is as educated as you, maybe they don't want to spend $700 or $800 on a new dell or hp, maybe they find the $500 ipad as a fit substitute. sure, some will find out that the ipad is no substitute, but most won't even notice a difference because most people just use a computer to check emails, use facebook, and watch videos... which is exactly what the ipad does.

ACtually, I praise the new PC surge on the iPad. My business customers know the difference between productivity needs and toys for tots. Mind you, the IPad is a phenominal toy, and every 3 year old son , daughter, nephew should have one, but the PC will remain, strong, for perhaps the next century at least, until the next evoultion, which will be quantum molecular computing, where atom sized super computers will power a nations needs from one source, with diminished needs for end-user hardware. Until then, well, I sell 1,000 Sandy Bridge CPU's a week. The Apple store down my street, is now empty.

That is like so what I like need an iPad for.

OK, but, if you did not have a computer, what would you buy 1st? An iPad or a desktop?

I am betting there are very few people in the world who have an iPad but nothing else.

So ultimately, there was no reason to upgrade the PC that works just fine, and instead that money went towards a tablet. (a couple of years ago it would have been a netbook)

Most People have PC's already, Im sure Tablet sales will fall as well once the market is saturated.

There is a lack of innovation the games industry, Im sure my rig with a ati5750 as the bottle neck will be quite capable of playing Skyrim when it is released, ok maybe Ill have turn the details down a bit but the difference will not be worth the cost of a new PC this year.

For me it's what the PC can do that is more important than its physical appearance.

As for Tablets Iv just been reading they suffer from input lag, lol my 1st PC a 386sx33 did not have this problem !, So my next purchase will be a new PC not a Tablet.

The question is whether the PC industry would be in the same position had Apple NOT introduced the iPad. In my view there are people who were dissatisfied with how they were doing some of their computing. Some of those (400 million or so) bought new PCs. Another 30 million or whatever bought iPads. If there were no iPad would those folks have bought nothing, a new laptop, a smartphone, and iPod touch or what?

I have to assume that some percentage of them (30%? 50? 75?) would have bought PCs. It's ingenuous to assume EVERYONE who bought an iPad was looking for a shiny toy.

So I believe you have to assign at least part of the decline in PC growth to the iPad.

Most PC manufacturers probably paid little heed when it was introduced and didn't think of it as competition. But one company did and started working on a laptop that would compete VERY well against the iPad. That laptop is the MacBook Air. Now all the PC manufacturers are chasing the Air after getting a slap on the behind from Intel.

Kind of funny, actually.

I dont think one can call 3.8 percent growth a ''crash''...

A slow down of growth? Sure. Everybody and their dog have PCs, its normal that the thing will flatten at some point. Tablets are simply opening NEW markets.

The problem is a Core 2 Duo is enough for majority of people.

Are you serious? Have you seen any PC manufacturer spend as much money on advertising than Apple? They even have their own annual convention. Take a look at the minimum price/specs on a macbook pro: $1199 13" screen, i5-2310 dual core, 4gb DDR3, 320 GB HDD. For 37% less I can get a 14" screen, i7-2630 quad core, 6gb ddr3, >500gb hdd.

i would think that yes to some extent in the short term tablets will cannibalize the sales of PC, but in the long term as these users become familiarized with technology and learns the limitation of the tablet they may convert or augment their tablet with a proper PC

I'm the same way but there are a lot of people that just want mobile, basic media. It hasn't single handedly done it, but tablets altogether have definitely taken a bit out of it. Not the IPAD per se, but mobile computing options that are not laptops(i.e. phones and tablets).

Because my business depends on me being able to edit graphic files and create other business documents, a computer (a laptop) would be the first thing I would purchase if i did not have a computer.

I recently purchased a Samsung laptop which is the similar size to a netbook but uses an i3 cpu which runs my CS3 very well. But I carry both my Samsung Laptop and iPad at the same time.

Most desktop PCs in use built in the last 3 years have sufficient processing power, ram and storage, so there is less need to replace them. A lot of households have at least one box PC. so the next thing to buy is not another desktop but a notebook. then a netbook or a tablet.

Crappy articles mixing Apples with Elephants...

Lol nothing would make me wait in line for a PC cause for one I build mine and two these companies have no innovative drive or spirit and they don't have a clue what people really want/need. Apple has this and that's why it's Macs are going up up up...well and because that's all they can go lol.

Wolfgang, normally I think your articles are well written but the titles come straight from the supermarket tabloids.

Since when if PC sales increase does that classify as a crash?

A crash would imply a drastic decrease, rather than your rather tepid reasoning that sales are slowing down but still actually GOING UP

If your article were a school report card I would have to mark it as "Must Do Better"

I can't see my office (call centre&data entry) using a tablet to do that; it's my understanding that it's this type of industry that makes the majority of purchases.

It's the enthusiast&gaming side of things that will perhaps take a hit - already i don't see PC games being sold on the highstreet like i used to. Space marine is out and i couldn't find it anywhere, had to go online for it.

Although I think some of the slow down is due to the ipad mostly because its not considered a computer which seems silly just because some people are desktop purest doesn't mean its not still a computer it has all the parts the define a computer.But the industry has the same problem most do if they arn't growing at these unnatural levels they act like there gonna close up shop. Look if you have 15%+ growth every year and you expect that forever that's infinite growth and that's impossible you could never expect any market to grow 18% every year.

As others have said: crappy economy, a overhyped fad, possible priced market as in people still are unwilling to jump to 7(or just dont have the money to do it)

I blame alot of it on analysts/reporters that have no idea how to adjust to a down economy and are expecting the boom times that were going on earlier last decade.

Just because someone is suddenly unwilling to buy a new computer every 6 months, doesn't mean the pc is dead.....

An iPad is a nice complement to a computer but not more. It can never store all your photos, music collection, let you edit complex documents ... and it even needs to be plugged into a computer to receive contents! So I don't think we can blame it for the low PC sales.
I believe that the main reason for the low PC sales is that since the appearance of Windows 7, for the first time in PC history, Windows runs perfectly fine and smoothly on average/affordable hardware. So, owners of PC's younger than 3-4 years see absolutely no reason to even consider switching to a new PC. In the past, even brand new pricey computers started to become slow or even unstable once you installed a few softwares and opened a few applications (and the fact that some manufacturers were already so good at providing bloatware with their PC's didn't help), so users wanted to replace their PC's very often.

As many have already said, no. It's a combination of the poor US economy, and older systems that are still running fine for what people do, including me. I'm still running an XP system, but will never replace it with a tablet. If I was going to shell out the money, I would be getting a new desktop or laptop first. I do a lot of word processing, so I need a physical keyboard at all times. Yes, I'm aware they make keyboards for the tablets, but it can't do everything I want. I want a system where I can run dual monitors, plug in a laser printer, use external hard drive, and can also burn a 300+ page Word file I wrote to at least a CD-RW for backup. No tablet can do this, and even if they can, I can barely stand writing for hours on my 15.6" laptop.