Are Desktop PCs Actually Dying?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
1,046 words · ~5 min read
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so people have always been fascinated by death who shot Tupac what really
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happened to Amelia earheart is Elvis still alive somewhere in Mississippi but
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in the tech World it seems to be whether the desktop PC is dead as a platform
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that we can't seem to stop talking about with Myriad digital column inches
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dedicated to the topic you see about 15
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years ago it seemed like the desktop computer was an absolute necessity for
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most technological interaction that didn't involve living room experiences
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like console gaming or watching television viewing simple websites was
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with few exceptions something you did sitting at a desk even laptops of the
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era were clunky underpowered and far
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more common in business settings than they were at home of course these days
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thanks to fast processors that are much less power hungry smaller portable
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devices have been able to step in and fill roles that were once almost
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exclusively the domain of desktops and because so much of our Computing these
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days is aided by Cloud processing and
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cloud storage having a desktop PC to
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install applications and store your stuff has become less and less important
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I mean think about how Wikipedia has become the goto font of knowledge in
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instead of Encarta on compact disc or
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how Facebook probably stores far more of your precious photos than your hard
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drive does so because a decent
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smartphone tablet or a laptop can bring
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up web pages and social media just as
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capably as a desktop and because a
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staggering number of people only use their computers as Internet machines
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anyway people started to trade in their bulky desk top PCS a few years back and
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desktop sales have been declining ever
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since in fact after desktops hit their
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peak in worldwide shipments in 2010 about
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157 million units that number dropped
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precipitously to only 2third of that by
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the end of last year so given this deine
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is there really reason to believe that we're going to be computing exclus
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exclusively on portable devices in the
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near future to answer let's take a
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deeper look at those numbers although
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the figures might sound a little alarming if you're a PC Enthusiast
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concerned about how much longer your hobby will be around it's important to
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know that much of the slump in sales has been at the lower end of the market your
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relatively cheap machines from companies like Dell and Gateway that
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non-enthusiasts were mostly using for basic tasks and given that modern
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laptops and smartphones do these things quite well the lackluster sales of
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Cheaper off-the-shelf PCS makes sense
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businesses have been migrating to laptops as well in addition to keeping
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their PCS around for longer before
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replacing them due to a lack of gamechanging new features that would
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justify a more rapid upgrade cycle I
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mean do you really think the average receptionist would be able to tell much
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of a difference between a Sandy Bridge CPU from 2011 and a current gen kbl Lake
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processor does his or her calendar benefit from USB
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3.1 so where does that leave Enthusiast Computing and PC gaming well if this is
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your thing you'll be pleased to know that the market for gaming desktops and
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components is still quite strong and is
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expected to continue to grow into the future in fact the total gaming Hardware
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Market hit the $60 billion Mark in 2016
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and is expected to grow by 6% annually
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through 2019 not bad considering how
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poorly the low-end is doing but why is
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gaming Hardware so different well a big
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part of it is that unlike the general consumer Market people who are are
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serious about PC gaming often won't settle for good enough considering how
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quickly demanding new games are released according to Intel PC Gamers upgrade
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about every other year which is significantly more often than the
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general public and the rise of digital distribution platforms such as Steam and
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the plethora of custom options like
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multim monitor the ability to use almost any controller you want and enough RGB
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to choke a horse not to mention the immersion of VR has helped to make the
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gaming PC scene a compelling one and
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although game downloads and VR headsets are also available on Console systems
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like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One they
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still can't come close to the levels of performance that are available on the PC
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so what's our conclusion then while the general feeling around the desktop PC
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market is Doom and Gloom it seems the real story is that the PC is simply
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becoming more of a product for gamers um
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high-end professionals and enthusiasts who are less price sensitive than
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normies and I know that those folks
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aren't going away anytime soon but whether you self-identify as Normie or
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other videos leave a comment if have suggestions for future fast as posses
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and I will see you guys next time