PC shipments decline for the fifth year in a row

[froggyboy604]

PC shipments fell again last year… just like the year before, and the year before that. In fact, Gartner reports worldwide PC shipments have dropped every year since 2012.

Computer makers still shipped a lot of hardware: according to Gartner the total for 2016 was about 270 million units. But that’s down from more than 350 million units in 2012.

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I think PC shipments are declining because most people are upgrading and fixing their own computers, so they work faster.

Upgrading the video card, RAM, and hard drive is not very hard after reading a book on computer repair, taking a 1 month course on PC repair, or watching a few video tutorials on PC repair. Upgrading the CPU, and motherboard is harder to do, but after some practice, a lot of people can upgrade the CPU and motherboard.

A lot of people are also building their own desktop PCs from parts.

There are some people who buy used and refurbished computers from eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, or from friends, family, and used computers stores.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

They are either upgrading and fixing or they just own a PC. You can only ship so much of a product out.

 

[froggyboy604]

They are either upgrading and fixing or they just own a PC. You can only ship so much of a product out.

I agree a lot of people already own PCs.

There are also not a lot of new buyers for PCs since there are not many millions of new teenagers and middle class workers every year without a good PC, or $300-500+ to spend on a monitor, Tower PC, or laptop.

Some people may not buy a PC because of PC not having enough good software being recorded on physical storage like CD/DVD , and USB drives. There are still many users with internet which is too slow to download big software installer files because of where they live, and they can't afford more expensive high speed internet, so they can use free software websites like Firefox, OpenOffice, SourceForge and Download.com or paid sites like Steam, GOG, Microsoft, Adobe, etc which sells software on their website. Most high speed connection get very slow once you share it with many users, or have a lot of files downloading and uploading from many devices like game consoles, tablets, servers, settop boxes like Roku, and other computers.

It can be difficult to get physical disc for software like Photoshop, MS Office, and Games if you live in a small town, or the software maker, and stores like Best Buy no longer sells certain software titles recorded onto physical discs and USB drives.

Some software like games are also online-only to check if your software key is not pirated to prevent piracy which is not good for people with a slow internet connection or unreliable connection.