As reported on TechCrunch. by Alex Wilhelm Today IDC predicted that the PC market will contract by 6% in 2014, and will continue to decline at least into 2018. Unit volume according to IDC would slip from 315.1 million units in 2013, to 291.7 in 2018. The figures include traditional PCs — laptops, desktops, and so forth — but exclude Surface devices, Android tablets, and iPads. In short, IDC’s predictions now expect PC sales to fall under the 300…
As reported on Engadget. BY MAT SMITH Sony said it was “addressing various options” as recently as yesterday when it came to its VAIO PC and laptop arm, and while announcing its financial results for Q3 2013, it’s apparently come to a decision. Amid reforming its TV arm (and splitting it into a standalone entity by June 2014), it’s going to sell its PC business and VAIO brand to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), with the final…
As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren Some PC manufacturers choose to imitate Apple’s MacBook line with various products, but Dell has taken a slightly different approach. In a recent marketing video, the company has raised the bar above MacBook imitation and transformed its very own Dell XPS 15 into a laptop that combines OS X and Windows 8. The entire marketing video, released in December, shows a laptop that seamlessly switches between the Windows 8 Start Screen and…
As reported on Wired. BY MARCUS WOHLSEN Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED The long, torturous death throes of the PC grew more excruciating than ever last year. Several research firms say PC shipments plunged a record 10 percent last year, the steepest drop ever. But, as smartphones and tablets take over our world, it’s not just laptops and desktops that could wind up on the pile of dead tech. They may drag the web down with them. Keith Rabois thinks…
As reported on TechCrunch. by Alex Wilhelm Today Gartner released a preliminary set of results for the global PC market in the fourth quarter of 2013, indicating that PC sales fell 6.9% to 82.6 million units. 2013 has certainly been a historically tough year for PCs and the industry that builds and sells them. Gartner, with its fourth quarter predictions now mostly in place, estimates that the PC market shrank 10% during the year. Total unit volume was 315.9…
As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEX WILHELM Splat. That’s the sound the PC market just made. According to Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh, back-to-school computer sales were “virtually absent.” Put in other words: The traditional September bump that students provided to PC OEMs as they headed back to classrooms failed to generate a meaningful sales delta. It’s like missing spring for the larger PC market. The best way to view this news is that consumers are repudiating traditional…
As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has finally admitted that forcing users to press the Control-Alt-Delete key combination to log into a PC was a mistake. In an interview at a Harvard fundraising campaign, Gates discusses his early days building Microsoft and the all-important Control-Alt-Delete decision. If you’ve used an old version of the software or use Windows at work then you will have experienced the odd requirement. Gates explains…
As reported on Engadget. By Jon Fingas When Michael Dell signaled intentions to take his company private for an overhaul, there were questions as to just what he wanted to do if and when shareholders weren’twatching his every move: was he going to shift attention away from PCs toward the enterprise? There’s no reason to worry, according to a staff memo that his company has published through the SEC. Dell tells his employees that the firm will “significantly increase investment” in…
As reported on TechCrunch. by JOHN BIGGS I’ve been using Windows 8 off and on for the past few weeks and, while I agree with many of the sentiments expressed by folks like Chris Pirillo and our own MG Siegler, especially regarding the Surface RT, I still think Microsoft did a good (not excellent) job on Win8. In the immortal words of losing Little League coaches everywhere, at least they tried and there’s always next season. Windows 8 won’t be universally…
As reported on Engadget. By Dana Wollman See that laptop up there? Basically, HP has announced something like that everyyear for we don’t even know how long. It’s always a convertible PC of the traditional sort, one with a fixed screen that swivels around and can fold down into tablet mode. It always supports a mix of pen and finger input. It’s always made of sturdy magnesium alloy. And it’s almost always aimed at businesses. All that’s true of the…