[ekianjo]

Yeah the PC has peaked... sure... 355 millions of PCs sold in 2011, versus 346 millions in 2010 worldwide. What peak are you talking about exactly ?

Even with all the Smartphone BS out there, the PC market is still immensely bigger than all of of the smartphone/tablets combined. Why do you think people still make games and applications for PCs ?

[Camillo]

I'm talking about that peak right there in 2011. I can't find whole-year data for 2012 yet, but 3Q shipments were down over 2011 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/11/horror_idc_pc_sales_... ), and Q4 was not expected to make up for it (http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/10/technology/pc-shipments-decl...). Also, smartphones had already surpassed PCs in unit sales in 2011.

[ekianjo]

Yeah, and guess how much time are people spending on their Smartphones vs time spent on average on a PC ? That should be fairly obvious that the number of minutes of usage per device is greatly in favor of computers vs smartphones. Smartphones are a fashion trend: people like to change them all the time when new models come out because there is a great technological advance currently on their specs. The same is not true on PC anymore, yet they are still selling by truckloads. Utility wins.

[vor_]

Dismissing smartphones as a fashion trend seems naive. There is a segment of PC users who emotionally react to the suggestion that the "PC", in reference to a box sitting on a desk, is in its twilight. I think it's due to a fear of losing mastery over the system.

PCs are horrendously complex for what most people would use them for--taking pictures, browsing Facebook, watching movies, and so on. It's no surprise that, as mobile devices have made these things easy to do, PC sales have been on the decline.

[michaelbuddy]

its a valid concern. basically you want all the economies to thrive so new things are being created by new players and everything remains affordable. and a healthy level of openness and modularity is so important too.