The day of the PC over? - Page 4

denphone · 27-08-2011, 19:28

Yes l have a laptop for smaller things and checking the internet and a smartphone for when l am on the move and a PC for games and they are all useful for certain times of the day or week.

27-08-2011, 19:39

The day of the commercial PC is over. Typical consumers buy a laptop and anyone left builds one. Then in a few years the parts makers will have faded out (of commercial view) and laptops will be suitable for gamers, video processing & editing, etc. because the technology will be there by then.

Then people will want to loose the hinge and tablets will become the norm and I imagine they will eventually become 'the' device, killing off not only laptops, but phones, handheld game consoles, media players and the like.

Long time off though.

denphone · 27-08-2011, 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jameseh

The day of the commercial PC is over. Typical consumers buy a laptop and anyone left builds one. Then in a few years the parts makers will have faded out (of commercial view) and laptops will be suitable for gamers, video processing & editing, etc. because the technology will be there by then.

Then people will want to loose the hinge and tablets will become the norm and I imagine they will eventually become 'the' device, killing off not only laptops, but phones, handheld game consoles, media players and the like.

Long time off though.

Yes a very long time off James.

Tezcatlipoca · 27-08-2011, 19:47

I think that mobile gaming via smartphones and tablets is already having an effect on the handheld market. Look at the poor sales of the 3DS, and its subsequent price slash and upcoming re-design. I also expect the new PSP (the Vita) to underperform.

Why would I want to spend money on a handheld console, when I already have a relatively powerful phone or tablet? I don't want to carry *another* device around. Why would I want to spend Â£30 on a handheld console game, when I can buy loads of phone/tablet games at a quid or two each?

Gavin78 · 28-08-2011, 00:34

Lol the fan boys are out in full on here. I can't believe how you can compare a tablet to a console/handheld or pc makes me laugh they are soooooo far behind. maybe and thats a maybe they just might be the "in thing in a good few years" but at the moment they are limited to FB style games so come on lets get real.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 are stuck in 2006 lets face it easy or not for developers and market share they are stuck in a time warp....I would rather stick with my pc for office ability and gaming.....I would rather go with a fad for now "touch screen" has been out before its the latest "teen thing" pc wont go anywhere. Consumers are feeding off the market because its a new thing

A lot of people are upgrading there own pc's or know someone who can do it for them rather than take it to the likes of pc world who would charge you something daft liek Â£45 to install memory. I mean I even showed someone how to do it at work and saved them a fortune getting someone like PC world to install memory for them and forcing them to buy it from there shop I saved them like Â£80

I console is great, easy for developers and better for the consumer because they can pay to play and no stupid pc setup to have to fiddle with to get a game to work....on a gaming front the pc is the KING because even with a graphics card I use Geforce 260 GTX (2008) model I got off ebay for Â£60 with a AMD 3.4ghz quad core cpu runs 99% of games on a 22" monitor at full screen not come across anything yet that slows it down.

So the cost works out at Â£190 for me personally total cost of my pc is around Â£1500 but this is over time 2 years I spent Â£130 on a tower unit most wouldn't but I reckon you could build something similar to me for around Â£300 and I'm still well above the specs of a ps3 or xbox.

PS3 lags because newer games are too much for the machine this is were the pc is ahead online gaming its meant for these kinds of machines

Tezcatlipoca · 28-08-2011, 01:46

Fan boys? LOL. Pot. Kettle. Black.

Tablets are not limited to "Facebook style games". Perhaps you should actually have a look at the kind of games available. It's not just a load of Farmville type things.

Tablets and smartphones *are* having an effect on the handheld market, and tablets *are* having an effect on the PC market.

So what if the PS3 or 360 are "stuck in 2006"? They still produce excellent graphics, have excellent games, and still utterly wipe the floor with PCs when it comes to numbers of games sold (and cost, and ease of use).

Tech specs really are not the be all and end all. People like you care about them, but most people simply don't give a monkey's - certainly not enough to bother with PC gaming instead of console gaming (side note: another reason the iPad far outsells all its competition in the tablet market - most people simply don't care if a tablet can run Flash or has USB ports or whatever else. So long as it can do what they want - e.g. videos, browsing, games - and is easy to use, then that's perfectly fine for them).

Even if you build your own PC (something the majority don't bother with), it still costs more than simply buying a PS3/360/Wii, and you still need to spend more money on it in future so it doesn't get left behind and become unable to play the latest games.

Consoles are cheaper, and you don't need to upgrade them. A 360 bought in 2005 or a PS3 bought in 2007 can still play the very latest games, which will still look and play great.

Can a PC bought over four years ago - and not upgraded since - play Black Ops, or Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or Batman: Arkham City, or Battlefield 3, or various other games out this year or last year? And how would it compare to the graphics on a 360/PS3?

Newer games are too much for the PS3... In what way?

28-08-2011, 08:58

PC does not just refer to a Tower or Desktop unit. It originated with IBMs personal computer and later refers to IBM compatible personal computers. This basically went on to mean any systems with hardware capable of running the windows OS so in short

A laptop running windows is a PC
A netbook running windows is a PC
A Tower/Desktop running windows is a PC
A Tablet "PC" running windows is a PC
and at a stretch seeing as Macs today use the same CPU as windows running PCs you could stretch that most Macs are PCs also

**Chris** · 28-08-2011, 09:44

You, sir, are a pedant.

**Hugh** · 28-08-2011, 10:18

Horses for courses - I have a smartphone, a couple of tablets, a laptop, and a three and a half year old PC (which plays modern games happily on 1900x1200 res); I use them all for different things.

Tezcatlipoca · 28-08-2011, 12:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

PC does not just refer to a Tower or Desktop unit. It originated with IBMs personal computer and later refers to IBM compatible personal computers. This basically went on to mean any systems with hardware capable of running the windows OS so in short

A laptop running windows is a PC
A netbook running windows is a PC
A Tower/Desktop running windows is a PC
A Tablet "PC" running windows is a PC
and at a stretch seeing as Macs today use the same CPU as windows running PCs you could stretch that most Macs are PCs also

How many tablets run Windows?

**Hugh** · 28-08-2011, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt D

How many tablets run Windows?

My first one did - a Compaq TC1000 tablet in around 2004.

And nowadays, you have http://www.mywindowstablet.com/

Tezcatlipoca · 28-08-2011, 12:49

A tablet existed before the iPad? Blasphemy!

How many tablets from this "generation" run Windows? IIRC, MS wouldn't allow the use of WP7 on tablets, and it won't be until Windows 8 that Windows will support ARM (which powers the vast majority of tablets AFAIK). I doubt that there are very many Windows 7 tablets around at the moment.

Hom3r · 28-08-2011, 13:11

Desktops will not disapear, 99.9999999% of business's use them.

The only way I can see them going is if you just connect a screen, keyboard, mouse to a server.

I have connected my PSP & DSi XL to the web but they are limited what they can access.

My smartphone can view a lot of websites with out issues, but screen size is a limiting factor.

Laptops & nebooks are just portable desktops and have limited upgradability.

Desktops problems are there are so many different H/W configurations that there are unlikely to be two identical setups (excludeing business setups).

With technology today you can hide the base unit, connect to a TV screen, connect to a network HDD, and use a wireless mouse and keybord, so I think the desktop wil remain, but hidden.

Stuart · 28-08-2011, 13:48

I think Desktops in large and medium size enterprises are (or will be) facing strong competition from thin clients running virtual desktops. Thin clients such as http://www.samsung.com/us/business/m...LF19PPBCBNA/ZA . These offer the advantage that not only are they easier (and therefore cheaper) to maintain than a fleet of PCs, but they are easier to secure.

As for your comment about desktops being easier to upgrade. They are, but bear in mind that most home or commercial users will not bother with that. Also, with the adoption of technologies such as USB 3 and Thunderbolt, laptops and thin clients may well end up almost as expandable as Desktops.

**Chris** · 28-08-2011, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

My first one did - a Compaq TC1000 tablet in around 2004.

And nowadays, you have http://www.mywindowstablet.com/

You have got to be kidding ... "tablet" was verging on mis-selling IMO. That generation of machines would have been better described as "flagstone". Awful, unweildy things, running an OS that was most definitely *not* designed from the ground up to support a Tablet.