Computers lose out to tablets
Tablets vs PCs

Microsoft’s gamble on Windows 8 causes market downturn.

Ever since the invention of personal computers, technological development and the demand for entertainment have been inseparable. Better displays, new ways to interact with the machine (such as the mouse), more powerful hardware – technological developments have always been followed by new ways for a PC user to be entertained.

Moreover, many of the developments were actually the result of the customers’ need for speed, processing power, resolution – all of it driven by the desire to have fun. Certainly, goals such as business efficiency, cost effectiveness, and other serious matters did play an important role, too.

Still, over at least the past 20 years the continuous development of the PC has been driven by the desire to have fun. To play games, listen to music, watch movies, and – especially since the proliferation of the Internet – the wish to socialize and to gamble.

In the last couple of years users have been discovering it by the millions that all these functions are served better by a tablet than a PC. Why use a mouse to click on a news item, when you can just touch the screen and read the stuff? Why wait to get home to play some mobile blackjack or even the Internet’s best free no download slot, if you can do it on the bus?

Online gambling operators have been quick to adjust to the trend, developing dedicated mobile casino games for today’s mobile player.

Consequently, many PC owners have been acquiring portable devices that they can simply whip out on the go. According to recent sales figures, they are now also discovering that there is really no point in buying a new PC. The ones they’ve got can do all the “serious” jobs perfectly well for years to come. For everything else, there are smartphones and tablets.

As a result, PC sales were at their 20-year low in Q1 2013, following a 14% global drop! That is nearly twice the rate analysts had expected and is already the fourth quarter in a row when sales of personal computers are unable to recover.

Realizing the advantages of portable devices is not the only reason for this decline, though. There is a general agreement among observers that Microsoft’s Windows 8 contributed very significantly to the poor sales performance.

Designed as a compromise solution to work on both the PC and on touch-screen devices, it is not only expensive, but also less convenient than dedicated operating systems running on either tablets or desktop computers. What seemed like a smart strategy at the time, has now turned into a source of confusion for consumers who want to be entertained and not challenged by the mere use of their devices.