New technology and design gives PC industry new life


Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

The scaremongering forecast that the PC is steadily heading toward demise won’t happen. Pessimistic sentiment toward the PC’s future seems to have prompted many PC makers to scale back operations, or more drastically, bid a farewell to the business entirely. However, it is believed that those still upbeat on the business, especially the few who defy the overall decline in PC shipments, the restructured Dell included, will in fact capitalize on the industry’s consolidation.

Despite all the talk of demise, the PC is still the No.1 device for real work and content creation. The introduction of tablets was once considered an end to the PC era, but it turns out those have gone through a boom and bust cycle. Smartphones are the top device for basic content but, when it comes down to real work, for instance editing videos and photography, the PC is still invincible. It is the center of users’ productivity both at home and in the workplace and there is nothing replacing it on the horizon.

Undeniably, the replacement cycle for the PC has lengthened. In the early years of adoption, it was roughly every two years, but that cycle has now at least doubled. With tens of millions of units in use now that are over four years old, it needs to be noted however that there is not much comparison between what a new PC does versus a four-year-old model. There is new processor technology. Graphics processing is light years away from where it used to be. Operating systems are essentially brand new. A typical example is the Windows 10 touch interface that users didn’t have before. The 2-in-1 form factors, combining features of both a notebook and a tablet, also serve as a cure for consumers’ PC design fatigue.

As PC manufacturers add this all up, there are a lot more reasons and things for people to get excited about. As such, the market is starting to see purchasing practices go back up. This is especially the case in gaming PCs. Given what people could do five years ago with consoles, or rather not do, no one talked about PC gaming. Now, however, that is the fastest growth area right now, in part from a tailwind from the rise of virtual reality (VR). This seems to be giving PC makers with strong gaming capabilities, such as Dell’s Alienware gaming rigs, a shot in the arm.

Looking down the road, continued efforts are being made to bring the price of VR headsets down. Instead of a $600 headset, VR will become more accessible with a $299 headset. With cheaper yet more powerful VR gadgets available to the consumer, there will be growing demand to have a unit that can run the technology, which is believed to be VR-enabled PCs.

All that said, people who said the PC was dying were wrong about the future course of the industry. The general picture of a downward spiral in worldwide PC shipments, which according to research firm Gartner Inc fell 5.7 percent in the third quarter from the year before – the eighth quarter in a row of falling PC shipments which makes it the longest duration of decline in history – may have scared a handful of vendors away from the business, but it is hardly a death knell for the sector.

Meanwhile, the likes of Chinese behemoth Lenovo, who is reportedly being considered by South Korean electronics giant Samsung as well as Japanese PC maker Fujitsu as a receiver of their PC businesses, and Dell which is looking to a new wave of VR-enabled computing that will likely move it further into the PC business, are renewing hopes for the industry that others seem to have been quick to give up.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Li Qiaoyi based on an interview in Xiamen earlier in November with Phil Bryant, senior vice president and general manager for Global Consumer and Small Business at Dell.
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