Tablets to Top Laptops This Year, All PCs in 2015

It's long been said that tablets will at some point become more popular than laptops, but according to a new forecast from IDC, that shift is poised to occur this year.

The market research firm predicted that tablet shipments will grow 58.7 percent year over year in 2013 to reach 229.3 million units, up from 144.5 million last year. Meanwhile, the "slumping PC market" is expected to see negative growth for a second consecutive year as tablet shipments outpace laptop shipments in 2013, and exceed the entire PC market - including desktops - by 2015.

Source

A Guy

 

[Rickkins]

Android PC's. I kinda guess they were inevitable, in part due to ms's push with metro and the whole unifying concept. Although I have not seen an android 'pc', I'll go out on a limb and suggest that they'll suffer the same limitations as tifkam.... ie touch on a desktop is simply not desirable, to a large segment of society.

Toys..?? Count me as one who finds tablets to be toys(ish). And yes, maybe it is a generational thing, who knows, but I do admit the possibility.

 

[turbofish]

The title might as well say "Tablet tops The Ford Mustang, All Fords in 2025"

A tablet is not a PC anymore than a digital watch is a PC

 

[sygnus21]

What's a "Personal Computer"?

The title might as well say "Tablet tops The Ford Mustang, All Fords in 2025"

A tablet is not a PC anymore than a digital watch is a PC

Actually if you look up the term "Personal Computer", you will see tablets actually DO fit within the definition.

A single user computer. The term was very popular in the 1980s when individuals began to purchase their own computers for the first time in history. "Microcomputer" was another popular term. Today, the terms PC, desktop, laptop and just plain "computer" are synonymous with personal computer.

The 21st Century - The Smartphone
The 21st century was the dawning of the mobile computing world. Although desktop computers continue to sell and laptops of all sizes are flourishing, handheld smartphones that can run any kind of application are quickly becoming the most personal of personal computing devices

personal computer Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia

BTW the definition of computer...

Computer: a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a finite set of arithmetic or logical operations. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem.

Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit that can change the order of operations based on stored information. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and the result of operations saved and retrieved.

Computer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now we can argue semantics, but for all practical (and definition) purposes, tablets are most definitely personal computers.

So... while "desktop" PC sales are declining, PC sales in general are very rapidly rising. It just depends on how you look at the market, and whether to include by definition, tablets.

My two cents.

 

[turbofish]

So you are now counting phones as PCs?

 

[labeeman]

I most certainly would count smart phones as PCs some even are multi core which means that Windows is now only 40% of net traffic with unix taking up the rest.

 

[Mustang]

Well I guess an ocean liner and a yacht are both boats, and based on the logic in some of the posts, the yacht could do everything an ocean liner could. Oh what the heck! Lets throw in an aircraft carrier and tramp steamer ... they also must be the same capability wise.

And of course trucks are the same as limos ... and so the argument goes on ... yadda yadda yadda! Get real!

Try opening multiple tax spreadsheet documents with 10 or 12 page width entries, and columns 30 or 50 pages deep ... simultaneously with the tax dept online lodgement service also open ... on a 10 inch or even 15 inch screen. Good luck!

Portable devices and desktop devices are designed for totally different modus operandi. The first need to be small for convenience of portability. The latter for convenience of large scale work where portability is not an issue. If I'm sitting at a desk 5 days in a row working, I don't want to have to plug a portable device into a monitor every day. In addition you can't personalize portable devices or repair them as easily as towers.

Try putting 3 SLI linked graphics cards, 30GB RAM, water cooled CPU, 3 DVD burners, 3 internal SSD HDs, 2 USB external HDs and an eSATA HD ... in an iPhone or tablet or laptop. And no, I'm not talking a gaming machine. Just a very, very fast machine capable of serious multi-tasking.

The onboard graphics of my friends expensive Sony laptop recently carked it, and the mobo had to be replaced to fix it, making the cost prohibitive.

You can kill an elephant with an elephant gun or you can starve it to death. Both methods achieve the same result. One is a tad quicker than the other.

 

[sygnus21]

So you are now counting phones as PCs?

By definition, yes. But where did you see me argue phones as opposed to tablets?

In fact I was careful to stay away from mentioning phones because I wanted to focus on tablets. However if you look at the definition, yes smartphones could be included. However in practical terms, tablets fit the bill more so than smartphones.

 

[sygnus21]

Well I guess an ocean liner and a yacht are both boats, and based on the logic in some of the posts, the yacht could do everything an ocean liner could. Oh what the heck! Lets throw in an aircraft carrier and tramp steamer ... they also must be the same.

If you feel like you want to go with that line of thinking...

 

[Wenda]

A phone is no more a computer, than a Cray II is a phone.

Or, to put it another way, if a tablet is a TV set, a laptop/desktop is the TV station.

One is not, and cannot be, the other.

And this is where the industry and the fanbois have gotten it wrong, they think they are the same.

Why would anyone actually wish for a future of content-consumption only (their choice of content, not yours)
with the ability to create anything yourself either discouraged or actively prevented?

That's not Nirvana, that's computing's darkest nightmare. And some of you want to rush there headlong????

That's fine, but do stop trying to drag the rest of us with you.

No, thanks.

Wenda.

 

[Mustang]

Well I guess an ocean liner and a yacht are both boats, and based on the logic in some of the posts, the yacht could do everything an ocean liner could. Oh what the heck! Lets throw in an aircraft carrier and tramp steamer ... they also must be the same.

If you feel like you want to go with that line of thinking...

Well that's the kind of nonsense that's being peddled out here.

 

[Rickkins]

While for sure, my S3 is a tiny, portable computer, when I hear(or read) the term "PC", I quite naturally think desktop computer, and nothing else.

 

[turbofish]

And my daughter's calculator according to this definition is also a PC. XBOX, PS3,...

 

[Mustang]

Hey, wait a minute! My Hewlett Packhard 25 programmable calculator that I purchased in 1974 while studying electronic engineering must also be a computer! Pity the graphics are restricted to numbers and letters, but what the heck! BTW it still works as good as the day I bought it!

It even has a few games ... like landing a rocket with a limited fuel supply so as to get a soft landing by firing off bursts of fuel. I still get a kick out of that!

Next thing they'll be saying is a smartphone can do everything a main frame computer can do! Tell Google how much space they could save if they swapped their acres of storage devices with portable laptops.

Google land. It occupies 115,000 square feet of space.

​

 

[Rickkins]

Can it spell 'shell oil'...??

 

[Mustang]

Can it spell 'shell oil'...??

Good call. Made me LOL!

 

[sygnus21]

Well I guess an ocean liner and a yacht are both boats, and based on the logic in some of the posts, the yacht could do everything an ocean liner could. Oh what the heck! Lets throw in an aircraft carrier and tramp steamer ... they also must be the same.

If you feel like you want to go with that line of thinking...

Well that's the kind of nonsense that's being peddled out here.

Well I tend to be open-minded and think logically.

That's me though.

 

[Mustang]

If you feel like you want to go with that line of thinking...

Well that's the kind of nonsense that's being peddled out here.

Well I tend to be open-minded and think logically.

That's me though.

With all due respect, au contraire, my take is that your posts display a total lack of open-mindedness and logic.

So we'll just have to agree to disagree. Nothing to be gained by debating it point by point.