Solution to save the PC market

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

The PC market is in trouble and nothing is really helping it currently. The possible solution: PC companies should merge into each other to create more stronger companies. For an example Dell and HP should join forces which would create a much stronger company. Toshiba could also merge with Acer etc. What do you think would help the PC market?

 

 

 

[primexx]

what makes you think less competition could possibly be better?

[Astra.Xtreme]

It's really difficult for big companies like this to merge. For one, the shareholders have to vote on it.

Then if the vote passes, the government has to review it to make sure they aren't breaking any antitrust laws or creating unfair competition (which in this case, they kind of would be).

 

Because of the magnitude of a merger like that, even if it was approved, it would take years and years for it to get sorted out.

Who gets to stay and who gets fired?  Who will be on the board of directors?  Lots of politics to work out.  Ultimately some powerful people will get fired, and they won't go down without a fight.

 

Plus Dell is a crap company, so somebody would be crazy to merge with them.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I think the desktop PC market for manufacturers like Dell and Acer is a bit too niche these days for those kinds of companies to pour a lot of money into. I think it's more for hobbyists and people that prefer to build their own these days. Laptops and tablets though, no problem. Those things will continue to sell very well I think.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

PCs are becoming less relevant but not obsolete. They're still essential for office and professional work. For starters, a keyboard and mouse allow for more complex GUI's that are hugely impractical to operate on a touchscreen. Then add in large / multiple monitors, lots of RAM and processing power, add-on cards (GPus and such), etc. PCs trump in ways that tablets simply can't compare for the time being.

[Growled Member]

I'm not sure anything can save the PC market. 

[Hum]

Expand to Mars ... ?

[Growled Member]

Expand to Mars ... ?

I'm not even sure that will help.

[Phouchg]

Create bloated software slow enough to impact SSD drives and modern multicore processors. Used to be pretty good driving force from the very beginning, but about 3 years ago hardware finally won this race. And there you have it - race is over and people are going home.

[McKay]

The Desktop PC market isn't going to die, its going to get smaller. Companies have to accept this and plan accordingly. 

[Growled Member]

The thing is, mobile is the thing. I use my phone now in many cases where I use to use my PC. Most people that have a smartphone do the same thing. I have a desktop and a laptop too, but I use my phone as much as those other two put together. Why crank up a PC to check email when you can just pull it up on your phone?

[The Teej]

Not much can save the PC market. The best way to help businesses now would be to make sure their Windows 8 tablets are dock compatible, so they can connect them to a PC monitor and allow for extra USB slots for things like keyboards, mouses and USB sticks.

 

Tablet prices are dropping while performance is becoming more and more comparable to average desktop computers. If they want to hang on to the conventional model, you're much better off selling a tablet with a dock, keyboard, mouse and monitor. However, more and more people are realising that tablets, especially Windows 8 tablets, do the same job as traditional PCs for most things people want to use them for.

 

The only way you're going to start driving new PC sales, if at all, is to bring the PC form factor right down to near-tablet sizes (after all, what is a tablet other then a PC with a built in touch-screen?) and then highlight the benefits of that, such as size, power efficiency (helps save on the electric bill), noise (ultra quiet), speed (as it is a tablet, it should tablet speeds, right?) and price it reasonably. While it's not going to create a massive boom in PC sales again, the idea of having a fully powered computer in a very small form factor should pique interest amongst some.

[Dick Montage]

That wouldn't help in the least.

[philcruicks]

Merging companies like HP and Dell if not going to help.

There needs to be more competition and innovation, form factors are changing.

 

5-10 years ago if you wanted something portable you got a laptop period. there was nothing else, unless you wanted some rediclous Windows mobile or Palm, PDA/early smartphone type thing...but they basically just sucked, mobiel connectsions were to expensive and slow, betteries either sucked or were massive...

 

Now there are smartphones, tablets, phablets, hybrid laptops, ultrabooks, laptops, AIO, thin clients/virtual desktops and the good old desktop, I'm sure there is someone in the world using a Pi as their main PC! (and that's probably half the list)

 

The PC (desktop and laptop) market will continue to shrink, nothing can be done about that. what companies like HP Dell Acer Lenovo etc... have to do is embrace that and create new and more innovative form factors that we want to use as consumers.

 

This is starting, companies are realising it, HP changed the name of the PC division to Personal Systems and is now bringing out tablets and hybrids, (rumours are a phone soon), but most are struggling to outdo the ipad/android tablets for personal use, and Windows 8 is yet to capture the market. As much as the enterprise market will remain much the same level, if personal customers change form factors then the market is going to shift.