[GortWillSaveUs]

From time to time I hear people say that the "desktop" PC is dead,..or will be in the near future. Not so fast my friend.

- Mainframers have said this all along,...
- Then when PC's hit the market,.."they" (whoever "they" are) tried to sell businesses on Terminal Server. Yeah,..like that ever took off!
- and current day,.."they" are saying that Tablets will replace workstations/desktop PC's (perhaps one day,..but not as fast as they predict it will)

Some evidence:

ASRock to ship more than 8 million motherboards in 2013. ASRock was the third-largest motherboard brand worldwide in 2012.

Motherboard brand vendor ASRock is set to achieve shipments of more than eight million units in 2013, up from 7.7 million units in 2012, and will maintain its gross margin as well as ASP, according to company COO Hsu Lung-luen.

The motherboard business currently accounts for 90% of ASRock's revenues, while its home theater PC (HTPC) business is at 5% and its server and embedded product business has the remaining 5%.

and most telling:

Commenting on rumors about Intel will giving up LGA packaging and adopting BGA packaging, Hsu pointed out that the plan is for mobile product lines, which need to be thinner, such as notebooks. The desktop market is unlikely to be affected at least before the end of 2015.

Seeing that many of its competitors have entered the tablet market, Hsu noted that competition in the tablet industry has already turned unbearable for players with no advantages and ASRock does not have plans to follow suit.


Bottom-line: Look, I'm not saying things won't change,.....but just like when I saw "Back to the Future",...I'm wondering where my hoverboard is,...I mean,..shouldn't they be here by now? Things don't suddenly change overnight. I think everything has it's time and place,...a tablet is good at "tablet type tasks",...laptops same,..and also true for workstations/Desktop PCs. Me,...I'll continue watching Breaking Bad on my Nexus 7,..use my laptop when I'm on business,..and my Desktop PC (this includes HTPC) at work and home for gaming,..budgets,..taxes,...using XBMC,..

Your thoughts?

[Dougie Fresh]

As things get smaller and faster, it probably gets less and less necessary to have different desktop and mobile CPUs. I see it more as a convergence of mobile and desktop technologies. Funny, because CPUs used to be soldered to the board. It all goes around in circles.

I still see pretty strong demand for desktops. Usually someone wants the large 24" monitor a tablet/notebook can't offer or something that just costs less and uses the monitor/keyboard/mouse they already have.

[GortWillSaveUs]

See and that's where I don't understand Microsoft's reasoning around Windows 8 (which I think they should have named Windows 13)
They built this OS for touch-screens and only touch screens. Sure, I'm exaggerating, but they basically don't give you the option to switch to the standard desktop view.
(and yes,..I know you can download an app,..but that's not the point)

I can't see myself extending my arm all day to reach and move things around,...nor do I want a 20+ inch monitor that close to me when I work.

[voochi]

Its pointless to talk about things being 'dead'. Horses and carts were killed off by the motor car but are still in use.

Clearly desktop PCs are becoming less popular and that's only going to continue. Will they ever be literally not in use any more? Not in my lifetime. But certainly they will sell less and less each year and become less in use. Its just normal technology progress/change, I don't know why people take it personally.

[Dougie Fresh]

See and that's where I don't understand Microsoft's reasoning around Windows 8 (which I think they should have named Windows 13)
They built this OS for touch-screens and only touch screens. Sure, I'm exaggerating, but they basically don't give you the option to switch to the standard desktop view.
(and yes,..I know you can download an app,..but that's not the point)

I can't see myself extending my arm all day to reach and move things around,...nor do I want a 20+ inch monitor that close to me when I work.

Windows 8 is more about establishing an ecosystem like Apple has done. In theory, you can write a single Metro app for all three platforms: desktop, tablet and mobile. In practice, at least in my experience with iOS apps, it's difficult at best. However, it's something at least -- ticks a marketing checkbox. To Microsoft I am sure it's better than nothing.

What I don't understand however with Windows 8 is how this is targeting to the corporate market. For real work, I am not sure how Windows 8 accomplishes anything. The UI gestures I make with my hand need to be near the keyboard like the mouse is. Otherwise, it's a real ergonomic issue. Even the mouse gets tiring. Imagine, lifting your hand from keyboard to monitor and back all day long. It doesn't make sense to me. Human factors engineering seems to be left out w.r.t. desktop use of W8.

[GortWillSaveUs]

Its pointless to talk about things being 'dead'. Horses and carts were killed off by the motor car but are still in use.

Clearly desktop PCs are becoming less popular and that's only going to continue. Will they ever be literally not in use any more? Not in my lifetime. But certainly they will sell less and less each year and become less in use. Its just normal technology progress/change, I don't know why people take it personally.

Good point voochi!

As to your question about why people take these things personally,...I suppose,...that's a question that has been asked since the dawn of time.
Ever see a group of Mainframe, Windows, Apple, Linux, Unix people arguing? As I said,...each has it's purpose.
It's like the scene in Jaws where the guys argue who has the best scar. Love that scene!

[Six_Shooter]

I only see an evolution of the desk top. Maybe instead of being a specific device sitting on a "computer desk", it's built into the wall, or part of the entertainment center, like many people have already done, switch back and forth between video entertainment and performing tasks, all using the same screen and device.

There are also many other evolutionary directions the desktop could take.

[rip_king]

What I don't understand however with Windows 8 is how this is targeting to the corporate market. For real work, I am not sure how Windows 8 accomplishes anything. The UI gestures I make with my hand need to be near the keyboard like the mouse is. Otherwise, it's a real ergonomic issue. Even the mouse gets tiring. Imagine, lifting your hand from keyboard to monitor and back all day long. It doesn't make sense to me. Human factors engineering seems to be left out w.r.t. desktop use of W8.

As somebody who works a corporate job, in excel almost all day, I would see Windows 8 as a detriment to my workflow. Personally, I love W8 for my HTPC, but that's because it has a nice 10-foot interface and I have all my key entertainment apps on the metro front page. Although there are some weird nuances like sometimes it will shoot me to the desktop and I need to find the keyboard in order to get back to metro. Having to juggle 2 different versions of desktops would be a nightmare for business purposes. I had just recently been upgraded to W7 on my work computer (had never used it previously and had been on XP since I could remember). I consider W7 to be a marked improvement over XP for my workflow, but I couldn't really tell you exactly why. I would imagine that any business version of Windows 8 would have to bypass the Metro UI because it's essentially useless in any sort of corporate setting.

To be honest, I'm a Mac user at home (other than my HTPC). I have a 27" iMac workstation and an iPad. But after having built my HTPC with W8 and using W7 at work, the benefits of being in OS X are less apparent to me now than when Windows XP was the norm.

Sorry, I'm getting a little side tracked here, but to get back on point... I don't see W8 being successful when being marketed towards business users. I expect W7 to be used for the foreseeable future just as XP had been. W7 seems to be a large improvement on stability and general snappiness in the OS over XP. And while W8 seems even speedier than W7 to me, it's still a little too clunky for anything other than HTPC use.

[Dougie Fresh]

I only see an evolution of the desk top. Maybe instead of being a specific device sitting on a "computer desk", it's built into the wall, or part of the entertainment center, like many people have already done, switch back and forth between video entertainment and performing tasks, all using the same screen and device.

There are also many other evolutionary directions the desktop could take.

+1. I see evolution and convergence. As a system builder, I am seeing more motherboards with mobile chips than ever. That's exciting because I can build tiny desktops/HTPCs into something like this at only 2.2" tall and it consumes less than 30W yet it can play 1080p video no problem.

[noggin]

What I don't understand however with Windows 8 is how this is targeting to the corporate market. For real work, I am not sure how Windows 8 accomplishes anything. The UI gestures I make with my hand need to be near the keyboard like the mouse is. Otherwise, it's a real ergonomic issue. Even the mouse gets tiring. Imagine, lifting your hand from keyboard to monitor and back all day long. It doesn't make sense to me. Human factors engineering seems to be left out w.r.t. desktop use of W8.

As somebody who works a corporate job, in excel almost all day, I would see Windows 8 as a detriment to my workflow. Personally, I love W8 for my HTPC, but that's because it has a nice 10-foot interface and I have all my key entertainment apps on the metro front page. Although there are some weird nuances like sometimes it will shoot me to the desktop and I need to find the keyboard in order to get back to metro. Having to juggle 2 different versions of desktops would be a nightmare for business purposes. I had just recently been upgraded to W7 on my work computer (had never used it previously and had been on XP since I could remember). I consider W7 to be a marked improvement over XP for my workflow, but I couldn't really tell you exactly why. I would imagine that any business version of Windows 8 would have to bypass the Metro UI because it's essentially useless in any sort of corporate setting.

To be honest, I'm a Mac user at home (other than my HTPC). I have a 27" iMac workstation and an iPad. But after having built my HTPC with W8 and using W7 at work, the benefits of being in OS X are less apparent to me now than when Windows XP was the norm.

Sorry, I'm getting a little side tracked here, but to get back on point... I don't see W8 being successful when being marketed towards business users. I expect W7 to be used for the foreseeable future just as XP had been. W7 seems to be a large improvement on stability and general snappiness in the OS over XP. And while W8 seems even speedier than W7 to me, it's still a little too clunky for anything other than HTPC use.

Another corporate issue is the move many companies are making from desktops to laptops, as laptop price/performance is now pretty good, and as the move to flexible working in many job areas means that giving an employee a single computer they can use both in the office and the home makes sense.

The office environment still has a keyboard, mouse, monitor etc. but no desktop PC. The employees simply plug their laptops into these facilities when based in the office - hot desking rather than having a permanent position.

I know some companies who have also used this technique to roll out a mix of Macs and PCs based on job requirements.

Doesn't work in all areas, but it is an area where laptops are eroding traditional desktop markets I think.

[rip_king]

Another corporate issue is the move many companies are making from desktops to laptops, as laptop price/performance is now pretty good, and as the move to flexible working in many job areas means that giving an employee a single computer they can use both in the office and the home makes sense.

The office environment still has a keyboard, mouse, monitor etc. but no desktop PC. The employees simply plug their laptops into these facilities when based in the office - hot desking rather than having a permanent position.

I know some companies who have also used this technique to roll out a mix of Macs and PCs based on job requirements.

Doesn't work in all areas, but it is an area where laptops are eroding traditional desktop markets I think.

Yup, in the last two jobs I've had we've had laptops. Although at my current job, it's a combination of laptop or desktop depending on job function. Also, since I work for an entertainment company, some people are issued Macs if they're in a more creative role. I work in finance and thus am stuck on PC (which is actually preferable for me given how much excel work I do).

My current employer has been so gracious as to give me a pretty new laptop with a quad-core i7 cpu in it.

Although to say the desktop is dead... I'm not sure. I still have a desktop at home and I actually kind of like it. With the proliferation of tablet computing, I think that some people find value in having a stationary workstation, and then also having a tablet that they can use while mobile.

[GortWillSaveUs]

Sounds like we're all on the same page,...pretty much,...and we didn't argue once.
Great discussion guys! Appreciate your comments!

The great thing about building your own HTPC using XBMC (of course),...is that YOU decide what you want.
I am always impressed seeing the types of builds I've seen here on the forum.

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Oh and I agree about Windows 8 in the office setting,.....never going to happen,...as commented before,...I thin Windows 7 will be the Windows XP for businesses.
and another comment which I stole,..."Seems that usable Microsoft Windows releases skip a version." Think about it.

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Take a look at the reviews on Amazon for Windows 8,....the 5-Stars and 1-Stars are evenly split. I thin if they had a 0-Star,...you see all of the 1-Stars become 0-Stars. I wish someone in Microsoft would "get a clue" and read the writing on "these walls". "These walls" refers to forum posts,...excessive number of returns (as I did), comments of forums,.....etc.