Is the end nigh? PC market freefall accelerates.

I suppose I'm the only one here who disabled Aero on both Vista and 7?

 

I would leave it on but disable all animations. I think I even disabled "show windows contents while you move them" if that was possible, I've did this under linux quite recently when I discovered a graphical configuration tool for my window manager.

umm, I did worse in Windows 7, I remember switching to Classic mode and unhappy to see all color scheme customization missing, I downloaded 3DCC, which is really old color scheme customization software for Windows and it worked (though it lacked good presets and a straightforward way to build your own as in Windows 95/98/XP)

Seen "Aero Basic" on an old computer, Athlon XP 1800+ or 2200+, 768MB, with a radeon 9250. I installed an XP driver (even got to some forum post that said the latest supported driver gave blue screen, use this slightly older version instead). Then I ran Unreal Tournament at ungodly framerate and Warcraft III max detail (but 1024x768x16) fine. It was a 20-year-old guy's PC, looking at this with big open round eyes he told me he didn't know his PC could do that.

So if you want to game on 11 year old hardware.. Use Windows 7 32bit in Aero basic lol, let XP rot and get eaten by earthworms.

 

I quite like the Modern UI on my Helix. I think if that went away and I just had the start menu again aka 7, it wouldn't be nearly as efficient to get around. On my desktop sure, boot straight to desktop, I'm starting to see why MS we're forcing the tile interface on everyone though.

 

I don't think anyone's suggesting that Win8 isn't pretty good on touch devices like phones or tablets, but forcing it on a mouse/keyboard desktop PC without a touchscreen is nonsense.

It's the classic mistake of giving someone a hammer to put in screws.

 

it works fine on a desktop. Been using it since beta and no problems

 

I have no idea what exactly you tried to write because of the double negation but since you mention it...

The tile interface with huge tiles is bad even on those devices. Take a look at Android and notice the differences. And then, ask yourself why Android is the most popular, while people hate MS

 

We know you love it, but the majority of people don't. I found it pretty unusable, and an upgrade install broke loads of stuff, including the new MS apps that didn't even exist before I did the upgrade!

 

If you're using an AMD card see if the official 13.1 Cat's allow you to use the app's. They're the only ones so far that allow me to use the CNN and Netflix app's.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1729501&postcount=2

 

I am using 13.5 beta, and the Netflix app works fine, don't have the CNN app.

 

Economic data are dreadful so it sort of makes sense.
I also think that Windows 8 has actually something to do with, I dislike it more and more for example...
I think that whereas "geeks" dispute the usefulness of Windows, from games to advanced productivity uses, or media related uses (picture/movies editing), lots of casual users have realized what geeks don't, you no longer need windows...

Pretty much it is one of the win MSFT landed on me through Windows 8, I know now that when my laptop will be obsolete, if I've a sane gaming solution, I won't get a windows device... I'm not sure that that is the message they wanted to convey through their new interface and the abandon of Office Starter...

Unintended consequences at their finest.

 

Though the whole economy sucks at the moment, still not a good sign at all.

EDIT
And the second link is no better, though I think it also show that the real world economy is in an terrible state.

 

Interesting EMEA saw the largest drop (-16.8% YoY). Not surprising considering the European economy. Combine that with cheap Android tablets and it's definitely not a surprise.

That's followed by Asia/Pacific at (-11.5% from previous quarter, YoY hasn't been released yet).

US only showed a -1.4% decline YoY but had a +8.5% growth from the previous quarter unlike EMEA and Asia/Pacific.

Regards,
SB

 

I guess at some point, PCs and tablets will reach a point of equilibrium in terms of market share and equipment rate, but until then it seems PC hardware companies will have to suffer (if they can't compensate by selling tablet hardware).

 

I think we need to stop talking about the death of the PC. PC stands for personal computer. There is no requirement for a "PC" to have a mouse, a Windows OS or an x86 CPU. Tablets are PC's. Granted they are PC's of slightly limited functionalty (like a Mac ) but they are still a personal computer.

All we're seeing now is the introduction of a new form factor into the PC market that is shifting the balance of form factor penetration within that market. There's still a market for desktops and tablets but for many consumers the tablet form factor is more convenient and so they'll switch to that.

The real question for us as PC gamers is how does the introduction of this new form factor effect gaming desktops and laptops. The answer should of course be minimal since the tablet form factor is 100% incompatible with serious gaming requirements.

So rather than get hung up on declining desktop and laptop sales which are merely a symptom if an inevitable transition within the PC market, we should be looking at GPU sales. If they are consistently declining too, then we have something to worry about.

 

I'd be personally somewhat surprised if desktop sales were decreasing significantly. I'd be guessing that most YoY declines would be in the laptop/notebook market where the choice between a notebook for e-mail, video, and web browsing and a tablet for the same would easily go in favor of tablets.

Professional/business laptop sales are likely virtually unaffected. I would hazard a guess that desktop sales are likewise virtually unaffected. Same goes for gaming oriented (no Popcap style gaming but AAA gaming) laptops and desktops.

Regards,
SB