PC sales in ‘longest’ historical drop

This has been long predicted, and if you think about it, it’s not really all that surprising. Tablets have made everyday computing affordable and accessible. PCs, in my mind, are for the "heavy lifting" tasks beyond simple media, e-messaging and web browsing. Most people don’t do the heavy lifting on a daily basis, especially in their personal lives, so naturally tablets are an affordable way to stay connected. 

Those in technically-related jobs, like tech comm, e-learning, web development, etc. need those heavy-lifting machines, but we’re also buying machines in a way that we don’t upgrade as quickly anymore. For example, I bought my laptop in 2010. I’ve upgraded the RAM, replaced the battery, but I also bought a machine that wasn’t the cheapest or slowest processor at the time. It’s a 1st generation Intel iCore 5. That’s a minimum now, but wasn’t then. I usually upgraded my machine every 2.5-3 years, but I think I can hold out on my laptop for another year–maybe two. PC manufacturers have to rethink their sales to be like cars. You could perhaps lease a laptop or desktop for 2-3 years (some actually do that), or think long-term where a person could have the machine for more time than the average leasing term, like 5-7 years–or more. If PCs were built and upgradable much like a person can maintain a car, I think laptops wouldn’t decline so much.

Even so, like I said, the average person on the street uses a tablet or smartphone to connect in ways that a PC isn’t needed. Perhaps sales expectations and dynamics need to shift.

–techcommgeekmom