For the first time since 2012, both IDC and Gartner agree the market for plug and play PCs are up, with a growth of 2.7%. As there has not been any huge releases in these past two quarters to drive PC sales, this number is more impressive than it might seem at first glance. Some of this growth was created from corporate machines being upgraded but not all. The news is good for those who build and sell PCs; as well as for the enthusiasts as stock of current and past generation parts are used up in these machines. You can see what the beancounters said over at The Inquirer.
"This was apparently demonstrated by a solid year-on-year growth of 2.7 per cent and exceeded IDC's forecast of 0.3 per cent growth, marking the strongest year-on-year growth rate in more than six years, when the first quarter of 2012 posted growth of 4.2 per cent"
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
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- Weirdest. Acquisition. Ever. Broadcom buys CA Technologies @ The Register
- Samsung capex for NAND flash to hike @ DigiTimes
- Samsung phones are most bork-prone as a quarter suffer 'performance issues' @ The Inquirer
- Adobe To Launch Photoshop for iPad in Strategy Shift @ Slashdot
It is because of RAM + GPU
It is because of RAM + GPU pricing. You could buy a high end pre built cheaper than building the same machine.
According to the Inquirer(1)
According to the Inquirer(1) quoting Gartner’s principal analyst it’s not the consumer PC sales that are helping as much as it is some business PC purchasing that going on to offset the consumer decline. So that’s just some old business PCs that are getting replaced and will get whatever Enterprise custom OS Image installed.
It’s still down to folks being turned off to windows 10 and the lack of User system control over their own hardware that’s turning off many to the OEM consumer PC/laptop market. That and many are not wanting any new CPU hardware that’s vulrenable to Meltdown and Spectre and more new variations of Spectre are just being announced.
AMD’s not doing too bad in a declining consumer market what with their CPUs(No Meltdown issues) not suffering as much for any spectre related performance losses. Also AMD’s Ryzen Pro, and soon Raven Ridge Pro, Business grade PC/Laptop SKUs for that market will help AMD along with its Epyc sales.
Intel’s got some 10nm problems that will make AMD’s Zen2 at 7nm much more attractive and if anything AMD’s more affordable pricing of its Zen products in the consumer, and professional, markets will probably see AMD gain more market share even though the overall consumer PC market is shrinking. Intel’s consumer sales will be declining but Intel’s higher markups will be of some help until AMD begains to take more market share forcing Intel to lower its markups in order to stave off more AMD market share gains.
It’s not the consumer PC market but the business PC replacment market that’s helping and once the Business PCs are purchased it will be another 5+ years before some Businesses will be replacing again so that’s not really an indicator of longer term PC market health unless the consumer PC market bleeding can be halted. RAM and GPU pricing has not helped but the Bleeding started long before the first crypto bubble appeared. Windows 8 was really a big cause of the downturn along with the Smartphone/Tablet becoming some folks main devices, but really many are just not going to need PCs anymore now that mobile is so big.
(1) From the Inquirer article:
” “PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment,” said Gartner’s principal analyst, Mikako Kitagawa. ” [See linked Inquirer article above]
Meh. They now sell 102.7 pcs
Meh. They now sell 102.7 pcs for every 100 they used to sell.
Intel has been doling out trivial, costed in improvements for years, so folks have delayed.
They cant delay forever, and there are sweet, cost effective improvements on offer now due to ryzen.
IMO, bulk business office desktop buyers would avoid dgpu unless really necessary, now that they have the radically improved APU option.
DGPUs are hot, noisy & dear power, lane & space hogs, and a pain to support.
Its what the market will soon realise it wants, and oemS that drag their heels with apu boxes, do so at their peril. Others will not.
The only graphics the apu cant do, is stuff the employee shouldnt be doing anyway 🙂