| haxxiy said: Well, don't we seldom have to buy new microwave ovens, fridges, washing machines etc.? One day, say, a decade or two from now, when the technical aspects of the hardware won't advance any further, it will be just about the same, people will buy a new one when the old one breaks, or because of new functions, or fancier and better looks etc. and whatever games which can't be played on local hardware because they are too demanding will be streamed like a service. It will possibly be the end of what some economists call the information technology supercycle: technical achievements will plateau, competition will increase and the profit margins of tech companies (which dominate the ranks of largest companies now as they did by the 1999 - 2000 stock bubble) will fall more in line with other businesses. That's what I make of it, at least. |
The largest tech companies nowdays don't rely on hardware to push their profits. In fact, hardware traditionally has much lower margins than software (and software won't plateau nearly as soon as hardware tech). The exceptions are Apple and Samsung, but Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and such - all of them are primarily software companies.
