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Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

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Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#61

> The initial market for tablets is now saturated: grandparents and kids have them, people bought them as Sonos controllers and such, and numerous households have them around for reading This author's view of tablets is so, so off the mark it makes the whole article even more worthless than the title suggests. Gaming, messaging, browsing and a dozen other activities are responsible for the majority of tablet usage.

How can I be sure yours isn't off the mark as well? Are there any studies? Any evidence? As is, I can't believe either of you.

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#62
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Also there's no mobile network operator who will give you one "for free" every two years when you renew a contract. " I live in South Africa, and that regularly happens here. People take out 2 year contracts for "data" and get tablets/laptops for free along with it. I suppose it's not so common in more developed countries where most mobile internet packages are "unlimited". Here, they're very much limited to multip…

No. In Western Europe, where I live, we also have a lot of mobile packages that bundles a tablet/phone for 1 euro and a data subscription plan that is often limited to 50 or 500mbytes. For instance my mobile phone plan includes 60 minutes of free phone call, 50mbytes of data, free call to people on the same operator on the week-end and unlimited SMS for 9euros/month. There's a 15euros plan that includes 500mb and 150…

I pay 15 euros a month for 1000Gb in the UK, with http://Three.co.uk/ on 4G with tethering permitted. Unlimited Texts and 1000 hours of talk time.

I get no roaming charges in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Macau, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, United States.

For 50 Euros I can roam worldwide with no extra charges beyond that.

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#63
post #25

Question to HN: has anyone tried the Onyx Boox series of ereaders sized 9" and over ? I am getting tempted, no small part of the temptation is the fact that its software stack seems entirely open source, based on Linux and the source code is on Github. That seems just perfect. The only thing that bothers me is that it is somewhat pricey $300+ and am not too sure about its performance. I lug around quite a big pile of…

Wow I had never seen these devices from Onyx before. Thanks for posting this. I too would be really interested to find out how the phone works in the real world.

I am less interested in the 9" ereaders, but would be interested in finding a 11" panel to put in a chromebook.

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#64

About these super tablets... "...least a 13” screen, 64 bit processor, 2GB of RAM, 256GB drive, a real keyboard, an actual file system, and an improved operating system with windowing and true multitasking capability..." They've just described a laptop/chromebook, right?

It's a "We must kill tablets to save them" kind of strategy.

Why is it so hard for some people to understand that different form factors are more adequate to different usage niches? Why is it that people insist so much in one form to rule them all?

Also, how does the author explain 7" tablets being so much more popular than 10"?

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#65
post #25

Question to HN: has anyone tried the Onyx Boox series of ereaders sized 9" and over ? I am getting tempted, no small part of the temptation is the fact that its software stack seems entirely open source, based on Linux and the source code is on Github. That seems just perfect. The only thing that bothers me is that it is somewhat pricey $300+ and am not too sure about its performance. I lug around quite a big pile of…

I have a 10" IREX. E-paper is much better to read, and no tablet can beat its battery life.

But switching books and random access are slow. Getting into a chapter and reading it works quite ok, but it's not good for reference books.

Unexpectedly, it's great for looking at some work and making annotations.

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#66

An entire article about the costs of PC management, without addressing enterprise management of tablets & phones.

"The main benefits of super tablets to enterprises are their systems management and replaceability. Smartphones and tablets are so simple and easy to manage that they are typically handled by an IT organization’s cost-effective phone team rather than more expensive PC technicians, who are typically so overwhelmed with small problems that they cannot focus on fixing more complex issues. Apps can be provisioned and upd…

Im sure if tablets were made that "could do more" they would have the same sort of it issues as desktops.

I don't even see why people even want to replace PCs with tablets. Its like replacing a car with a motorcycle. They're just different things.

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#67
The tablet gets eaten by phones and phablets. As somebody else put it: "Phone, tablet, and laptop; pick any two." No need to have three of them for most people. In addition, the customers who tink to need all three already have a tablet.

Re: Why Are PC Sales Up and Tablet Sales Down?

#68
post #43

Tablets will become obsolete once smartphone's screen size increases. We're already into the 5"+ region for smartphones and rumors have it that the next iPhone will be in the region of 6". That's enough screen real estate to browse web sites. Past that the device becomes cumbersome to carry around and if you're in a fixed position you can use your PC/ultrabook.

I have gone through the 'make it smaller' phase of mobile phones from when they were relatively large heavy bricks that ruined your clothes (or could only be carried in your hand) down to the small chocolate bar size where you could comfortably put two of them in your pocket without noticing them.

Now, I find we are going through a 'make it larger' phase where mobile phones are getting too large again to comfortably fit in your pocket. I dislike my Samsung S3 for that reason, and it is no longer one of the largest.

When a phone is too large to fit conveniently in your clothes because of weight or size, you can no longer think of it as 'mobile' because you rarely carry it on your person, and tend to put it down and walk away from it out of earshot.

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