PC market: ABANDON HOPE all ye who enter here

If PC makers were despondent that slablets of every type continue to hog consumer spending this year, then 2014 will bring little relief - and may finally shove those teetering on the brink of the abyss over the edge. Providing the box counters at Canalys have done their forward calculations correctly, tabs will "almost …

[Dalek Dave]

The correct term is "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here"

Not, as you have written, "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"

Dear God, did none of you read Dante's Inferno?

It has been around for 700 years, one would have thought you would get it right :)

There is a special place in hell reserved for people who misquote Dante.

[Yet Another Commentard]

I remember the misquote was in (I think) the Level 9 text adventure "Snowball" and was a subtle cue to the player to hand over a particular item at the gate.

[vonRat]

All your base are belong to us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bonus point for the Level 9 mention :)

[sam bo]

Really ?

I don't think Dante wrote in English, so which particular of the dozens of translations are YOU quoting from.

Translation can be literal and virtually unreadable or interpretive, so that the meaning is not "lost in translation".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Really ?

In this case there is a significant difference between both versions. As a plea for sloppiness this does not make the grade.

[sam bo]

Re: Really ?

Well Dave, no plea for sloppiness intended, please state which of the several hundred translations from the original you prefer . They all have their good points, but none are word for word identical, presumably that is why the translator thought their version was essential.

[Mayhem]

Re: Really ?

@sam bo

You can talk about translation all you like, but the original Italian phrase is Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate, and being latin derived, Italian is quite precise in meaning, which makes translation straightforward. The modifier "All" clearly applies to the word "Hope". English word choice is down to the translator, hence "Abandon all hope" instead of say "Leave behind every hope", but the context and grammar is clear.

Lasciate - second person plural of the verb to leave or deposit. "(You) Abandon"

Ogni - masculine plural adjective each or every. "All"

Speranza - noun. "Hope".

Voi - pronoun. "You"

Ch' - Che - pronoun - who or that. "that"

entrate - present impersonal. "is entering (this)"

[Daniel B.]

Why oh why doesn't MS see the elephant in the room? It's the Metro/Modern UI, stupid! It does work on tablets, though even there it is possible that Windows has become an anti-brand. People sat through Vista, given current market trends both consumer and businesses are going to sit through 8.x. They are in grave danger of losing the consumer market for good; nobody really needs win8 for common consumer tasks where win7 is enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

The MS Titanic is the problem

Too big and unwieldy to manoeuvre quickly in response to market forces or technological change.

[Don Jefe]

If you're talking common consumer needs, they don't need a computer at all. They never did. They needed the streamlined functionality of a tablet, but decent options simply didn't exist.

The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of people got over having a 'computer desk' in their homes 10 years ago. Laptops fell in price and didn't require you to setup a shrine to use it. Now tablets are affordable and even less of a hassle. It was inevitable that desktop/notebook operating systems evolved and will completely die for consumers since tablets caught on.

[davebarnes]

"None of the players are strong or making money in tablets"

What?!

Apple seems to be making money.

[Don Jefe]

In the great game of consumer electronics unit volume Apple is quite nearly a non-entity. They do make scads of cash, but the total numbers of units shifted is almost a rounding error in comparison to the other big names.

If it weren't for Apples high margins they would have died years ago as they don't have the volume required to make it in the middle or low end markets. Those models for those markets are cash flow based. Essentially they take a tiny percentage of each sale and pass the rest of the money back up the chain. The model is comparable to a currency exchange business where you get paid for touching the money. The product isn't relevant, it's the financial logistics that people are paying for and as long as volume is very high you can make a lot of money.

The non-Apples aren't making big bucks on tablets and such simply because there isn't enough volume to offset the business logistics costs.

[All names Taken]

Do you think PC users might have rumbled the 'pay for hardware/firmware/software' update ruse?

[Mikel]

The traumatic and costly PC upgrade experience may be part of it. Plus the certainty that if you do it you will have to do it again.

[MrDamage]

As compared to

Buy a shiney fondleslab today, and have to buy another one in a few years time to keep up with software/streaming demands?

[Kubla Cant]

Inevitable

There's a long list of once-invincible companies that are now history. The technology industry is especially unforgiving. Think of Kodak and Polaroid. To some extent it even happened to IBM; they managed to survive, but they have nothing like the reach that IBM had in the third quarter of the last century.

So the same fate probably awaits Microsoft, Intel, Apple, perhaps even Google.

[chivo243]

Why always the Fanboi Apple tax joke?

Really? Again? Can’t ya think of an original joke about Apple?

Besides, I have entered the dark side, apple hardware IS superior to other breakables. I work in a school, I’ve seen H-PELL’s (see new jokes are easy) die a horrible meaningless death at the hands of children, and administrators too! Now we have a fruity assortment, pretty healthy for all involved, especially our IT Support group.

[Goat Jam]

I have no sympathy for them at all.

"Intel had to finally admit this week that the Wintel grip which has served it and Microsoft so well over the past decades is waning"

Ironically, the "Wintel grip" is what ultimately bought them here. For too long all those Wintel OEMS have been churning out uninspired, all-of-them-alike PC's and simply jumped every time MS or Intel said jump.

"You shall not differentiate your products by skinning Windows or providing OtherOS. All PC's shall have an indentical look and feel" "Yes sir!" they cried.

"You shall not replace Windows components with 3rd party ones. All PC's will ship ONLY with Internet Explorer" "Yes sir" they cried.

"Kill the netbook market! It threatens us!" "Yes sir!" they cried.

These idiots made this destination inevitable the moment they allowed their products to be turned into commodities for the sake of cheaper access to Microsoft operating systems. The gravy train was good for a while of course but it has long since been derailed. They have for so long been sitting on their laurels that they no longer know how to compete and create products that are actually attractive to purchasers.

[KrisMac]

...then causalities are expected...

I'll raise your Causality with my Entropy and slowly grind your PC Market to dust.....

Its in the nature of Time and Space to do that to you......

[Anonymous Coward]

In my opinion, The "death of the PC" really reminds me of the "year of Linux on the Desktop", but instead of computer hobbyists making proclaimations that never pan out, in this case it is financial analysts making proclaimations that turn into self-fulfilling prophecy to shift around some stock and securities to make themselves richer.

Sure, in a few years time some vendors won't exist, but how is that novel? Vendors come and go all the time. But proclaiming the death of an entire form factor, especially one as entrenched as the PC just to suit some glorified banking criminal's agenda is a little much if you ask me.

[John Brown (no body)]

"proclaiming the death of an entire form factor, especially one as entrenched as the PC"

Agreed. The vast majority of PCs in businesses are on desks where people sit and use them. Most of them can't sit there playing with tablets or smartphones or use any form of BYOD device simply because they need a proper keyboard and a proper screen all of the time. Management poncing about with a tablet and swiping pictures across the screen don't earn money for the company.

They could switch to thin clients if there's a business case for it but call centre staff and admin staff (which is probably most business users) are not going to be switching to touch screen tablets any time soon.

[busycoder99]

Your argument would have some merit

If Linux desktop had been growing by 10% annually back in the day. Sadly, it wasn't, but that is about how much the PC market is declining currently, with no signs of slowing down.

[Will Godfrey]

Odd that. My desktop PC doesn't look anywhere near dead?

[Paul J Turner]

Office PC is not dead

They're just waiting for Windows 9 and a return to a sane Windows 7 - like work environment.

(Like everybody else with a PC.)