Posted on 01/20/2015 10:09:38 AM PST by smokingfrog
Despite predictions to the contrary, it seem there is still plenty of life left in the PC market.
PC shipments across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) reached 25.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014, a two percent increase on the same quarter a year ago, according to calculations by IDC.
It said strong consumer demand during the holiday season meant the PC market racked up a third consecutive quarter of growth - albeit modest and patchy. PC sales across the region grew by 5.5 percent across the year, with 93.3 million PCs shipped.
But the researchers noted there are big differences across the region: Western Europe continued to drive growth, with shipments increasing 10.7 percent. The Middle East and Africa grew 2.6 percent, while Central and Eastern Europe contracted 18.7 percent.
As a result, IDC said the market was primarily driven by healthy consumer shipments in Western Europe, and vendors stocking up for Christmas and January sales, resulting in portable PC shipments increasing 5.3 percent; in contrast desktop PC shipments contracted 3.5 percent during the quarter.
In Western Europe, shipments for the holiday season and post-Christmas promotions underpinned the growth particularly in the consumer space, with France and the U.K. showing "solid double-digit percentage growth". IDC said promotions have been key to driving demand and boosting consumer portable PC shipments by 18.2 percent and consumer desktops by 13.2 percent. But the positive impact of the end of Windows XP support on desktops ended, which explained the 3.9 percent decline in business sales, even though business demand for laptops and notebooks was up with a 12.6 percent increase.
Overall desktop shipment growth in Western Europe reached 1.6 percent and portable PCs 15.9 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at zdnet.com ...
I have a laptop on my desk top with a 20 “ monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse
I unplug the two 4 port USP extensions and hit the road
It’s the conversion to appliance. PCs just aren’t getting that much more exciting from 1 year to the next. This is both the hardware and software, there’s very little driving you to need the latest and greatest anymore, an 8 year old computer running 6 year old office apps will suffice for 99% of users these days. So there’s no reason to upgrade until it breaks, much like your microwave, no longer is your 4 year old computer a hunk of junk desperately needing replaced. This drops sales down, but there’s still plenty of buyers out there to support the market.
-——————an 8 year old computer ———
might die at any time
A one day old computer might die at any time. Bad things can always happen. But the point is there’s no reason anymore to replace a computer that hasn’t died, simply being a couple generations behind the curve doesn’t cut it anymore.
I'm in 'zackly the same boat as nomad...our desktop burned up just last week and we bought a new HP all in one; being a lightweight in the tech department, I took the old unit and the new HP to a local computer guy and he pulled ALL our stuff off oldie, and installed it on the new guy -- and he did "Classic Shell" -- I can hardly tell any difference; best 89 bucks I've spent in a long time.
My only remaining glitch is that I can't post pics to FR any longer until I figure out how to get photo 'properties'.....before, I'd just shade/copy the properties -- with this new unit when I go to properties I just get a little box that shows the properties, but it won't let me shade and/or copy.
Yeah, I know.
If I could just figure out the MS7 filing system, I might like it better.
Maybe I need to get the “Dummy” book for MS7, and see if that will help.
I don’t have XP anymore.
Mine is a Lenovo, is it similar?
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