PC Market starts shrinking?

[Jojoyee]

Technologies are evolving. We just start to see an interesting trend but we can't tell exactly what will it be tomorrow.

Hmmm, I'm hoping a get a mobile device, which can be connected to a 30' LED monitor and a full size keyboard via Wifi or other wireless connection when needed. The mobile device can be multi-booted to different operating systems...

[eyeb]

ugh... that's already possible lol kind of

I hook up my laptop/netbook to my 46" TV and use it as monitor. And control my laptop from my phone using it as mouse/keyboard lol, since it's laptop, i can multi-boot xpud on it so it starts in a few seconds to connect internet/play movies

plus my toshiba qosmio laptop at almost 18" screen makes it just "portable" enough to move from room to living room for a few hours of tv lol (yeah it gets about 3 hours battery life (so sad but i love it lol)

The google tv/apple tv are basically becoming PC's with TV's as the acessory instead of other way around

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

Technologies are evolving.

I prefer to use the term "changing" because to me, "evolving" implies improved and/or better which I don't believe to be the case.

The one thing that sets the human race apart from other species is our ability to communicate. This means exhibiting the ability to transfer a communication to other human beings in a form they can understand. As of now, direct communication between humans on all levels, be they family, work related or social, is going backwards, both in terms of duration and understandable content. The best, and some would say only, way for humans to obtain a good understanding of each other is for them to at least see or hear something they can relate to during the communicating process. Webcams, video conferencing and telephones aid this process, but texts, emails and Facebook posts do not.

Seven years ago when I was still in the UK, I was astounded by how some family members were losing the ability to communicate with each other one-on-one. An extreme case was a teenage girl who would only text or phone her mother from inside her room, rather than speak to her, even though they lived together in the same house.

Even governments are getting sucked into this "evolved" method of communicating, and recent events in Libya demonstrate well enough the folly of this as opposed to putting real people face to face across a table.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by Remah

Technically, we're not talking about PCs but desktop/workstation PCs versus various types of portable PC.

Yes, I wrote my post in that context only. We are talking about desktop PCs, versus the smartphones, tablets, laptops etc.

Originally Posted by eyeb

I hook up my laptop/netbook to my 46" TV and use it as monitor. And control my laptop from my phone using it as mouse/keyboard lol, since it's laptop, i can multi-boot xpud on it so it starts in a few seconds to connect internet/play movies

That's what my brother has done... he told me the same thing over phone last night .

They have got a Mac book there, so they connect the mac book to the TV through some cord. They bought a wireless mouse. Then they realized they needed a keyboard too.. for that they found a software for iPod touch, which has a keyboard and they use the iPod to control the keyboard on the mac book.

Gosh.. what all can happen these days!

[George.J]

In my opinion, PC vs Laptop is similar to Landline vs Mobile Phones . Landline connection's are decreasing per day in India compared to the usage of mobile phones, especially smart phones are on the rise. The world is just getting smaller and smarter...

[eyeb]

hm midnight but evolution is just changes that end up sticking... not for better or worse, but just ones that didn't die out...

kind of like how resistive screens are just as good as the capacitive ones, but because the iphone choose capacitive and set the industry to lean that way that it won out... like how the A/C and D/C or FM/AM both have one preference over the other.

In the same way, while desktop PC's may have advantages over the more portable "PCs" in customizing/fixing it, because the majority of users don't wish to/know how to/care to that advantage is lost to the market so the "evolution" is leaning towards portability now that the "usability" is about equal. Remember back in 90s the tablets didn't sell well because they weren't "usable" but the ipad recreated this concept to make it "usable" instead of creating a new idea it was able to change how people thought of them.

And cell phone market while picking up in the "emerging" countries, is going to slowly fad away to voip imo. Cell phones where you have to "buy" minutes AND data costs a lot. And with cell phones now as mini computers, if people had to pick minutes OR data, they'd pick data which is why voip to me is picking up. I know people don't "talk" as much but for the ones that do, google voice has made voip easy for people to use now. So I can buy unlimited data and at same time get unlimited minutes. This also means that even if cell towers are down I can use any open wifi to keep talking. Plus the whole "video" calls is making voip more popular as well.

With the trend of technology, this bit of info is something i keep remembering, the amount of technology in one of those musical hallmark cards is more advanced any technology from world war II. Imagine how the war changed from planes flying on less "processing" power than a music card! I don't know how this relates to the PC market shrinking but I thought I'd share it, one of the odd pieces of info that I like.

[deya]

I think one of the reasons why smart phones are so popular is that they are easier to obtain. By that I mean contracts offered by various providers ie, you don't have to pay for the handset up front because the price is factored into the overall tariff. There's no way that as many people would have a Blackberry or iPhone if they had to actually buy the handset. Nor would they change/upgrade them as often to get the latest model.

If all you want to do is check emails, use social network sites, then being able to easily get your hands on a smart phone is the better option. I reckon that many households, especially here in the UK, have a drawer or cupboard full of 'last years models' - but they all equate to overall sales.

You don't tend to do that with a desktop PC or even a laptop, people hang on to them for much longer, which also reflects in overall sales/use figures. It doesn't mean that people still aren't using them, they just don't replace them as often.

[Anupam]

Agreed with deya .

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by eyeb

I hook up my laptop/netbook to my 46" TV and use it as monitor...

I tried once before and it worked, but bad usability. Each time I have to reboot the netbook for it to detect the resolution of the LCD TV screen. There should be a TV labelled 'Android device enabled'. I just need to switch on the TV monitor, then power on the Android device, and they get connected locally and wirelessly without relying on an HDMI cable. Possible?