Year after year the news repeats across tech portals: THE DESKTOP PC IS ABOUT TO DIE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! The culprits for the future massacre of computers, always the same: consoles, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs. Although these kinds of headlines are attractive and surely generate many visits for the media that publish them, they are pure nonsense! Here we explain why.
It's not to boast about my CV (which isn't a big deal) nor to win the argument with a logical fallacy, but you should know that I've been writing about technology for almost 20 years. I started in 1998 at a national newspaper in my country (Argentina), then specialized in video games and technology in general, going through several publications of various kinds, always professionally. I have been writing for NeoTeo since 2008. Almost 20 years writing about technology, computing and video games. And not a single one of those years passed without someone announcing, for some reason or another (and always with great fanfare), the death of the desktop PC.
The first time I read about the demise of our beloved desktop computer was during the reign of the PlayStation. "The death of the desktop PC: More and more people are playing on consoles", video game and PC magazines around the world titled, given the tremendous penetration of Sony's console into homes. The same was claimed year after year, as new consoles gained followers everywhere. Then, when the waters calmed and it was proven that consoles didn't compete with computers, the scapegoats mutated according to new technologies: from smartphones to tablets and from there to smart TVs. But all of this is a lie.
First and foremost, because none of those beautiful gadgets compete directly with the computer. My mom never used a PC, for example, but she does have a nice and practical smartphone to communicate. My friend Felix, on the other hand, a computer fanatic and also a smartphone owner, could never imagine that one thing could replace the other. It's common sense! My mom doesn't like PCs but loves her smartphone. Felix has a romance with his computer, but also has a smartphone (and a smart TV, by the way).
And it's that both consoles and smartphones added users to the technology market, massified it without taking away audiences from other computer niches. They served to include those people who didn't want to complicate their lives with a PC, but felt that the ease of use of a smartphone (or a console, if it was for gaming) was something they could handle. Those of us who have used computers all our lives understand that there is still a long way to go before any of these devices present themselves as a real alternative, but we did understand that they are a nice complement. So, where is the competition?
The Flawed Gartner Statistics
But in recent years the news of the death of the desktop PC has become much more recurrent. Part of the blame goes to reports like Gartner's, which analyze computer sales worldwide and which most news portals base their false claim on. According to Gartner, which dedicates itself to selling these very statistics, desktop PC sales have been in frank decline for five years. Without further ado, it states that during the last months of 2016 sales fell 5.7% worldwide. OH MY GOD!
Read like that, the situation seems alarming, true. But if one minimally dedicates two seconds to analyze the information presented in those press releases, what one realizes is that Gartner counts sales of complete systems and only from certain brands. Yes, Gartner's statistics include only Lenovo, HP Inc., Dell, Asus, Apple and Acer computers, among others. But it says nothing about clone PCs. Nor about hardware bought separately.
That is, friend of NeoTeo, if the computer you use is a clone (built with parts from different brands), it falls out of the statistics. How many people do you know who have a 100% branded / non-clone system? But Gartner's biased statistics have been enough reason for, over the past few years, many tech websites (some of great renown) to come out and dig the premature eternal grave of the PC, achieving not only visits, but also the viral multiplication of the lie, turning it into a deeply rooted belief just by repetition.
Now then. To be fair, that Gartner's statistics cover only a small spectrum of the desktop PC market does not serve to dismantle the dogma of "the imminent death of the PC". Anyone could say that, although biased, these statistics do serve to give an idea of how the market is, through a sample. Asserting that none of my acquaintances has bought a branded PC is pure anecdotal evidence. It doesn't count. Same as saying that in my 20 years of journalism I've been hearing the same thing over and over, and yet here we are. But in past days, the lie was finally exposed thanks to a report from Jon Peddie Research.
The JPR Report Sets the Record Straight
According to the information provided by the research firm, 2016 was a record year in hardware sales, surpassing the barrier of $30 billion for the first time in history (a goal expected to be reached only in 2018). And that's not all, a 6% increase is expected for 2019!
"Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the leading research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced today that the global PC gaming hardware market has reached the $30 billion mark for the first time. Adding DIY system building, upgrades, accessories and communication and audio systems, the market exceeded $30 billion in 2016 and is forecast to grow 6% by 2019.", says the JPR press release.
Ted Pollak, senior analyst at the company, says that "consumers around the world continue to embrace the PC platform for video games for multiple reasons. The ergonomics of the desktop PC is popular because the distance from the screen offers better detail when using HD and UHD monitors. Additionally, the PC offers superior control with the mouse and keyboard interface. This has been validated by the majority of eSports, which are mostly played on computers. Furthermore, product designers have given players thousands of options to complete the customization of their systems, from functional to aesthetic."
Do you understand? For me it's clear as day, because the desktop PC market cannot be like Schrödinger's cat, dead and alive at the same time. So, adding all the information, the conclusion is clear: people build their own PC (or buy a clone from their trusted store). That Lenovo, Apple, Acer and HP sell fewer machines is only a problem for them, since the rest of the market enjoys very good health. Perhaps if computers from these brands offered something better for our money than one built by ourselves, things would be different. But it's not so: building a desktop PC is cheaper than buying the same system but with the sticker of a known company on the front. It was about time we started to wise up, if you ask me.
