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Pc market is crashing hard, whats this mean for Rift?

TheGiantRobot
Honored Guest
Please note that when I say PC I am referring to the standard desktop and laptop personal computer, and am not including smart phones, consoles, or other computers of sorts. Smart phones and tablets are exploding in sales right now, but PC retailers and PC component manufacturers have posted massive 10-20% decline.

I know there are talks of the consumer Rift supporting mobile platforms, and the tablets and smartphones are getting faster every day, but in order to play AAA titles as it stands currently you are going to need a good if not great PC. If you are looking at pre-built computers you'll need one in the $800+ range to run anything recent at medium settings, just to maintain the 60 frames per second.

We are coming out of a recession and that could be affecting the sales, especially since a new PC will cost you 500-2000 USD while you can sign up for a 2-year mobile plan and get a smartphone for 99 cents. Not just the US either, Europe and most of the world as well.

Things do seem to be getting better every day, and I doubt any of us here are economists, but probably best we assume the world economy will continue upwards rather than taking another nose dive.

Could we see a resurgence of the "hobby" PC builder that we saw in the late 90s and early 2000s? People building their own machines at home to save every cent, or are we going to continue the trend of multiple devices for multiple purposes with smart phones tablets and consoles? With the fiasco behind the newest Xbox console and eventual release of a PC-centric Rift, could this drive many "hardcore" gamers back to PC-gaming and even encourage current casual gamers to make the jump, or will Rift suffer from the lack of enthusiasm behind PC-gaming and the user-friendliness of mobile?
41 REPLIES 41

Dexter111
Honored Guest
"bamousse" wrote:
Everyone else is using it for browsing the web, checking email, and using office software. So yea, the PC Market is going away - or rather just transforming. The GAMING PC Market isn't going anywhere for awhile.

How do people use "office" software on mobile phones or tablets? How do they do graphics design or CAD on them? How do they write and edit long articles for that matter, write books or similar?

I think the usefulness of such devices for most basic tasks a PC can do are highly overstated.
Browsing, checking/reading E-mails and maybe posting a few comments I can see, but as soon as it gets to be something more than that you will have a usability problem rather soon.
I have two tablets lying about here somewhere and they're good for reading articles in the morning and taking with when travelling (although I prefer a laptop even for that most of the time) but they will never replace my PC.

On the other hand if hardware gets strong (and miniaturized enough) we could see "PCs" in a few years that aren't much bigger than a mobile phone where you just attach the display device/keyboard/mouse and whatever you need to it and use them that way.

Anonymous
Not applicable
"Dexter111" wrote:
"bamousse" wrote:
Everyone else is using it for browsing the web, checking email, and using office software. So yea, the PC Market is going away - or rather just transforming. The GAMING PC Market isn't going anywhere for awhile.

How do people use "office" software on mobile phones or tablets? How do they do graphics design or CAD on them? How do they write and edit long articles for that matter, write books or similar?

I think the usefulness of such devices for most basic tasks a PC can do are highly overstated.
Browsing, checking/reading E-mails and maybe posting a few comments I can see, but as soon as it gets to be something more than that you will have a usability problem rather soon.
I have two tablets lying about here somewhere and they're good for reading articles in the morning and taking with when travelling (although I prefer a laptop even for that most of the time) but they will never replace my PC.

On the other hand if hardware gets strong (and miniaturized enough) we could see "PCs" in a few years that aren't much bigger than a mobile phone where you just attach the display device/keyboard/mouse and whatever you need to it and use them that way.



Yea, so not that many people may be using tablets for using office software (although I guarantee you some people ARE indeed using tablets for daily office work). But those aren't the only mobile platforms either. Ultrabooks and ultrathin laptops are around, and aren't much use for gaming. There are two-in-one devices as well that already exist, essentially laptops with detachable screens so they can convert to laptops - again, not much use for gaming. The main point is that you aren't the majority userbase for computing. For the majority of the market, tablets DO do enough and are useful for the things they want to do...

Also, I mentioned developers would also want a PC in my post anyways... I could have been more specific, but developers would happen to include people that use CAD type software.