By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - PC Discussion - Worst PC Sales Drop In History

teigaga on 14 April 2013

No reason to update.



Around the Network
Playstationfan12 on 14 April 2013

well of course pc sales have gone down. Why by an expensive gaming pc when you can play most pc games on cheaper consoles without having to upgrade every 6 months?



Scoobes on 14 April 2013
Playstationfan12 said:
well of course pc sales have gone down. Why by an expensive gaming pc when you can play most pc games on cheaper consoles without having to upgrade every 6 months?

You've completely missed the point. This is general PC sales, not just gaming PCs or even gaming capable PCs. It's not really related to PC as a gaming platform as it's actually a relatively sucessful niche (niche compared to the rest of the PC market) at the moment with Steam and other digital platforms each serving a selection of downloadable games ranging from small indies to AAA budget titles.

This decline is more related to general consumers and businesses not looking to upgrade their hardware. It's not that surprising considering most PCs now will last over 5 years quite easily for most business tasks and tablets/smartphones are more than capable of general consumer tasks like web browsing or basic multimedia features like video.




Get your Portable ID!

Corey on 14 April 2013

Nobody needs new Pc's and many have diverted their computing use to tablets and phones



VGKing on 14 April 2013
reviniente said:
Two problems that I have with Windows 8 is that, for one, the release is extremely unstable. Internet explorer crashes three or even four times a day, and I have like 5 or 6 sites opened at most. The other issue I have is the Start button; I can't find anything.

Having said that, I don't think Windows 8 is responsable for the worst drop in PC sales in history.

Well I don't have that problem. I do have lock-up issues but I'm pretty sure that's my cheap Samsung laptop.

You don't need a start menu. Bring up the charms menu on the right and you can search for any file on your computer. It's really  much better than the Start  Menu. 



Around the Network
TeddostheFireKing on 14 April 2013
MoHasanie said:
RandomK said:
MoHasanie said:
So people are buying tablets but not pc's? Well that's disappointing, cause I find tablets pretty useless. They look cool and if I owned one I'd use it to play a game for 5min a day but there is no other need for it. Everything you can do on a tablet can be done more easily on a pc.


You should have stopped talking when you said "if I owned one". The tablet is much better than the pc in The majority of tasks hence the shift. You should only talk from personal experience, if you had a tablet you would be saying it the other way around. Everyone wrote the iPad off at launch and now look at it.

Nope, all my friends who own tablets say that they are pretty useless as well. 


All my friends who own Ipad's love them to pieces, they don't see the point of a computer much anymore. It's just a consumer shift, I'm sure in a few years it will plateau out, but I suspect we'll see a great PC market contraction over the next few years.



theRepublic on 14 April 2013

PCs have finally saturated the market. When just about everyone has one that will meet their needs, why upgrade? I am still using the 8 year old desktop I bought in college.



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
Switch - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)
Switch - Bastion (2011/2018)
3DS - Star Fox 64 3D (2011)
3DS - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trilogy) (2005/2014)
Wii U - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (2010/2017)
Mobile - The Simpson's Tapped Out and Yugioh Duel Links
PC - Deep Rock Galactic (2020)

chris_wing on 14 April 2013
BasilZero said:
Arent more people building their own PCs rather than buying pre-built ones by Dell, HP, etc?

I'd like to see those numbers aswell.  With Windows 8 shipping on all new PC's people (like myself) are going to build our on computers & purchase a discount copy of Windows 7 or even switch to Ubuntu.

The low sales are a result of

1-Bad economy.  (it can be cheeper to build your own computer rather then buying a pre-built Dell)

2-Dissatisfaction with Windows 8. (People were happy with Windows 7 & don't want to buy a computer with the wrong OS, ie 8)

3-Competition from the tablet market. (For people who only do web & facebook, a $200 Nexus tablet may fit the bill)



famousringo on 14 April 2013
HiddenConcept said:
famousringo said:
HiddenConcept said:

What about how easy... and cheaper it is to BUILD it. It's like putting legos together man. I never joined the PC Gaming scene until last year. 


People have been building PCs for decades. In fact, the very first PCs had "some assembly required." It hasn't suddenly, just now, dropped the bottom out of the PC market. Even if it were, people aren't building their own laptops, which have been the growth sector of the PC market for quite some time now. 

Those who are talking about how a five year old PC can run just about anything people want to run are closer. PCs have been over serving the needs of most users for a while now. And what happens when a market gets over served...?

Whoa thats a great point. Seriously i have never thought of that. But the point I brung up was that with the increasing normal tech level of a general person is increasing. My mother doesn't even know the difference between Internet Explorer and Chrome. While a ten year old can tell me the difference. Its just an idea. and i dont know if that explanation helped get it across. I just woke up. Do you get what im saying?


I get what you're saying. You're talking about a demographic shift as old, tech-ignorant people are replaced by young, tech-savvy ones who might be more likely to build their own. Demographic shifts are powerful, but slow, only accounting for perhaps a couple percentage points in a year. When you consider that 2/3s of the PC market is laptops, which tend not to be custom built, there's just no way that a demographic shift like that can account for a 13% contraction in a single year. I'd estimate 1% at most.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

HiddenConcept on 14 April 2013
famousringo said:
HiddenConcept said:
famousringo said:
HiddenConcept said:

What about how easy... and cheaper it is to BUILD it. It's like putting legos together man. I never joined the PC Gaming scene until last year. 


People have been building PCs for decades. In fact, the very first PCs had "some assembly required." It hasn't suddenly, just now, dropped the bottom out of the PC market. Even if it were, people aren't building their own laptops, which have been the growth sector of the PC market for quite some time now. 

Those who are talking about how a five year old PC can run just about anything people want to run are closer. PCs have been over serving the needs of most users for a while now. And what happens when a market gets over served...?

Whoa thats a great point. Seriously i have never thought of that. But the point I brung up was that with the increasing normal tech level of a general person is increasing. My mother doesn't even know the difference between Internet Explorer and Chrome. While a ten year old can tell me the difference. Its just an idea. and i dont know if that explanation helped get it across. I just woke up. Do you get what im saying?


I get what you're saying. You're talking about a demographic shift as old, tech-ignorant people are replaced by young, tech-savvy ones who might be more likely to build their own. Demographic shifts are powerful, but slow, only accounting for perhaps a couple percentage points in a year. When you consider that 2/3s of the PC market is laptops, which tend not to be custom built, there's just no way that a demographic shift like that can account for a 13% contraction in a single year. I'd estimate 1% at most.


Idk man Computers had a massive boom and is more available today then years ago. Are you sure that those sales drops include laptops? PC can mean either one. Word of mouth also passes fast. Like Joe builds a computer to game on and convinces Jimmy to build one to game with him and it continues. I've convinced 4 people to start looking into it and one already made his, the others are gathering cash.  

Edit: Your idea makes the most sense about how there are computers from 5 years ago that can still handle things today.