PC Sales Strong In Stores 53
An anonymous reader writes "Notebooks and Desktops are both staying strong in brick-and-mortar sales, according to C|Net. While laptops have mostly fueled the market these last few years, Desktops actually had a little bit of a comeback." From the article: "The first quarter is always a bit slower than the fourth, when holiday shoppers often drive PC and chip companies to their strongest results of the year. This year, the drop from fourth quarter to first was a little more pronounced, echoing Intel's warning in March that earnings would fall short of expectations. But when compared with the first quarter of last year, PC shipments were up 28 percent, versus growth of 19.4 percent recorded during last year's first quarter."
A slow news day... (Score:2)
Re:A slow news day... (Score:2)
Re:A slow news day... (Score:2)
DB was in its maintenance... (Score:4, Informative)
vista (Score:2, Funny)
Re:vista (Score:2)
None. It hasn't been released yet.
(That was a trick question, right?)
so few comments... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:so few comments... (Score:3, Funny)
Vista, Vista, Vista (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, I don't think it'll have any impact at all. Why? Because hardly anyone cares about Vista.
Those who run corporate IT departments have no interest at all in a new OS, not while their various lockdown tools won't work on it. Consumers, by and large, don't give a damn because a) most don't understand what an operating system is and b) most haven't heard of Vista.
Microsoft has yet to start a real advertising blitz for Vista- though if they did, you'd probably see a decline in PC sales.
This whole article is really just a big nothing- people are still buying computers! The specs on these computers are better! The status quo has not changed very much!
Re:Vista, Vista, Vista (Score:2)
Several of my clients have asked about Vista. Well, not by name, usually - but many of my customers are fully aware that Microsoft puts out new versions of its OSes and are vaguely awre that the next is in development.
Re:Vista, Vista, Vista (Score:1)
But why would people want desktops? (Score:1)
Why? Yes, desktops are more upgradeable, cheaper, and more powerful, but have they actually increased their lead in any of these areas? I'd think that with USB and Firewire, laptops would actually be catching up in upgradability. The way companies seem to have been focusing on power consumption lately, they should be catching up in power. And the
Re:But why would people want desktops? (Score:2, Insightful)
The graphics cards in notebooks suck compared to those in desktops. And to top it off, graphic cards aren't exactly easy to upgrade in most notebooks.
Sticking a new $125 graphics card into a desktop after a couple years can make a pretty big difference in 3D gaming.
Re:But why would people want desktops? (Score:1)
Re:But why would people want desktops? (Score:1)
You've said the answer yourself.
No one wants to carry around an external drive. However, "upgradability" doesn't mean an external drive typically. It means the ability to add a better video card (which is possible in some laptops) or upgrade the memory (standard in most laptops) or upgrade the processor (typically not possible).
Typical pe
Re:But why would people want desktops? (Score:2)
In other news.... (Score:2)
Related to the Moore's law dilemma? (Score:1)
Never have bought a PC at a store (Score:2)
Re:Never have bought a PC at a store (Score:2)
It's obvious that you weren't buying computers 20 years ago. I got my first computer for my 8th birthday. There was no place other than a bricks and mortar store. I still prefer to go and get the things that I buy in person. If for no other reason than if I'm unlucky enough to get a lemon, I can get it replaced that day.
LK
So are PCs selling well or not? (Score:1)
Sorta like the MPAA's "weak" sales in reverse... or the very opposite of the plight of the poor, downtrodden Major League Baseball owner.
So were Intel/the PC makers (Zork is a little fuzzy on the specifics here - protip: Intel doesn't account for 100% of chipsets - but hey, this is slashdot after all) just super-duper hyper-rosy-optimistic in their predictions for Q1, or...
Re:So are PCs selling well or not? (Score:2)
After that earlier item about the introduction of video tape (a mere 50 years late) I can't imagine what gave you that idea.
Re:So are PCs selling well or not? (Score:1)
I'm extra-bitter because they totally forgot the 25th anniversary of My Little Pony [dreamvalley-mlp.com].
(>_<) <-- me
Re:So are PCs selling well or not? (Score:2)
Re:So are PCs selling well or not? (Score:1)
Re:So are PCs selling well or not? (Score:2)
How many sales driven by malware? (Score:4, Interesting)
It is ironic that the architectural faults in MS Windows may be good for the bottom line of computer manufacturers and of MS itself.
---
Frustration is not being able to complain about unannounced database maintenance.
Re:How many sales driven by malware? (Score:2)
Well, I know when I talk to joe users... their common complaint is as follows
"My system says memory is full what do I do"
Ends up they are talking about drive space
"Well, you can either delete some stuff, or buy a bigger drive"
"Oh, you mean if I throw money at it it'll be fixed"
"Well, it's not broken, but basicly yes"
"Ok, I'll throw some money at it, money will make it go".
I suspect
Re:How many sales driven by malware? (Score:1)
I set up the networking for a couple of brand new Dell machines. The new machines were slower than dogshit and the networking was erratic. The problem was all of the software that came with the Dells. Once I deleted a whole crapload of startup entries from the system registry (in t
2 words: Toy boxes (Score:1)
I, for one... (Score:2, Funny)
Random Capitalization Peeve (Score:1)
OK, "laptops" is not capitalized, but "desktops" is. Why? Is this a brand name I haven't heard of? I am really tired of the random capitalization degeneration I'm noticing more and more of. Anytime you're capitalizing a word, verify that it's either at the beginning of a sentence or the name of something, not just any old noun.
More competitive prices? (Score:2)
Maybe it's because I'm older and I place a higher value on time spent and reliability now, but I didn't want to mess around with the beige-box vendors on pricescan. So I compared the more reputable online prices (everything from Dell to TigerDirect) to prices at CompUSA and Circuit City. I was surpris
Pretty Much the Same (Score:1)
Re:Pretty Much the Same (Score:2)
The price was near identical to building or online, the quality superb and there's a lot to be said for the 2 year "Not my problem bitch" warrenty.
64 bit cpu? (Score:1)
Did you go for the64 bit CPU?
That what got me off of my butt, although I'd like to say it was the occassional memory paging faults that were getting thrown now and then at inopportune moments, the truth is that I'd put up with that, and figured out some of the issues by staring at debug output for a few months, it was the price cut of the AMD dual core 64s that got me moving.
With th eCPU and the 2 gigs of RAM, I am in multitasking heaven, even the bit of compiling I've done so far hasn't strained it.
With
Re:64 bit cpu? (Score:2)
Re:Laptops tend to cook themselves (Score:2)
Yep, a desktop has far better ventilation for use in bed.
b.t.w. what do you mean with laptops always need to be propped up?
In my experience a laptop keyboard has a much better wrist support than a regular keyboard.
Re:why I bought. (Score:1)
Of course I guess you are also pretty sure that just because many of the folks who buy a new computer do so because the old one is infested with malware and viruses it just cannot be Microsofts fault. I have to say that the idiots using Windows that allow it to become infested in the first place are complicite to some ex