Boring PCs Slow PC Industry, Says Gartner

By Douglas Perry
published

Gartner has, once more, revised the shipment forecast for PCs this year.

The market research firm now believes that the PC market will only grow by 9.3% to 385 million units instead of the previously forecasted 10.5%.

By now we are used to this kind of news, as it is generally believed that it is the tablet - mainly the iPad - that is killing PC market growth. However, Gartner is taking a slightly different spin this time and says that there is just no consumer interest in mini notebooks anymore. Gartner says that the tablets have some impact, but the analysts do not believe that not many consumers will replace their notebook with a tablet. The much bigger problem is that there are no compelling reasons for replacing PCs that are generally seen as good enough.

The problem may be the commoditization of the PC and its hardware and the declining importance of the processor. Translation: The PC is just too boring today and new PCs have virtually no value over older computers. Gartner believes that there is still economic uncertainty, which additionally slows sales and that there is a need for business sales to drive growth. As business upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, Gartner believes that the business market has substantial opportunity for growth.

Douglas Perry
83 Comments Comment from the forums
  • aznguy0028
    Apparently Gartner never heard about a few little games coming out this year...something called Diablo 3 and Battlefield 3 which will drive crazy numbers of pc upgrades.
    Reply
  • NightLight
    well... i think software is to blame too. nobody is pushing the envelope anymore... once you have a core2duo or equivalent, you can run pretty much anything. everyone has 2 to 4 gigs of ram. again, this is enough for any program too run smoothly.
    Reply
  • Stardude82
    What's more there has been no big revolution in Netbooks since the Atom came out. My Netbook (with 1GB of RAM) runs 7 as well or better than it ever ran XP.
    Reply
  • RazberyBandit
    A "boring PC" is all the average home user needs. Email, web browsing, streaming video, office programs, social shovelware games - all are handled rather well by low-end hardware. Until the time comes where everyone suddenly wants or needs to do something which actually requires cutting-edge tech, the plethora of "boring PCs" on the market will remain.
    Reply
  • malphas
    aznguy0028Apparently Gartner never heard about a few little games coming out this year...something called Diablo 3 and Battlefield 3 which will drive crazy numbers of pc upgrades.Only a tiny, tiny minority of people so much as open their case of their PC. Almost all PCs are prebuilt, not custom rigs, and the majority of them are laptops. The vasty majority of PC users do not use them for gaming.
    Reply
  • aznguy0028Apparently Gartner never heard about a few little games coming out this year...something called Diablo 3 and Battlefield 3 which will drive crazy numbers of pc upgrades.
    That won't make much of a difference. Both of those games can easily run on any mid range graphics card (which most people who game on their PC already have). Only the niche hardcore PC gamers actually spend the 300+ on the high end ones.
    Reply
  • NightLight said basically what I would like to say only in a different way. Moores law is dead, non-existant. The processor, video card, hardware in general from a computer isn't doubled in speed in 2 years or 1 year and 6 months even. Few people really need to upgrade, and those who do only need a part switched out (typically the video card). I don't know what this article is trying to imply concerning the idea of a boring pc. Whoever this Gartner is, he sounds like a fool or a liar. If he is trying to imply that computer sales themselves are related to the way a computer case looks I'd laugh in his face.

    I am pretty sure most people decide to buy a computer or a new computer because they want something concerning the idea of the computer, not as a mantle to put over their fireplace. I am sure asthetics sways some peoples various purchasing decisions as in this one instead of that one. But I highly doubt anyone is going around saying, I can't find a computer in the color I like so I will buy something else instead.
    Reply
  • malphas
    n58902345I don't know what this article is trying to imply concerning the idea of a boring pc.That's why you shouldn't embarassed yourself with your reply. Also, Gartner is not an individual person, and Moore's Law doesn't imply anything about computer speed doubling ever two years.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    n58902345NightLight said basically what I would like to say only in a different way. Moores law is dead, non-existant. The processor, video card, hardware in general from a computer isn't doubled in speed in 2 years or 1 year and 6 months even.
    You sir are sadly mistaken. Hard drives, Video cards, CPU's have all increased in speed by leaps and bounds. and will continue to double or more every two years.

    Its not that hardware hasn't gotten WAY better (core2duo vs 2nd gen I7, 500mb/sec SSD vs 80mb/sec HDD) Its that WoW, Farmville, and console port'd games have made the PC's requirements stagnant, so there has been no reason to upgrade unless your old system broke.

    I am not bragging, I don't own a super powerful machine. I have an i7-920 with 2 gtx 260 video cards and 12GB of ram. For me to push my GPU's and CPU's to their maximum, I have to run 3 xp vm's with Wow in each VM plus once on the host, each on its own screen.
    Reply
  • chick0n
    so ... what kind "exciting" PC do you need ? Something like Apple that's either all white or silver and sell for 1000 more ?
    Reply