A Post-Desktop/Post-PC World?

[CptTrips]

I found this interesting.

http://www.businessinsider.com/windows-users-plan-to-switch-to-apple-2012-11?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheMoneyGame+(The+Money+Game)

I know a lot of people who are moving to tablets (most iPad, some Android).  

A friend at work says they have a really nice computer on a corner desk in the family room, but the kids never touch it any more.  They'll sit in the same room and Facebook on the iPhones or tablets instead, or even from the xbox (you can FB on the xbox???).  Most games they play are on the phone/tablet or xbox.  

I gave my mom my iPad 2 when I got my new one.  She had always been a little skittish about her PC, because in fairness there are a lot of ways to accidentally hose up your pc.

It took a while to convince her there was very little real chance of her hosing it up, once I got her setup, short of just dropping the thing.  SHe could feel free downloading anything she wants off the Appstore and there is virtually no chance of her screwing up her system or getting a virus.  

(Yes, I know it technically theoretically possible to get a virus off the Apple app store but she probably has greater odds of getting hit in the head with a solid gold meteorite on her way to the lotto office to cash in her winning ticket.)

No I have some issues with the poll and the way it was framed, but it is interesting and more and more I see other stuff that falls along those lines.  The biggest problem is that its not clear if those are supplementary or replacement pruchaces.

Along those lines, I was at Best Buy the other day.  I remember when you used to have rows and rows of PC game shelves.  Now its like one little shelf that looks a little dusty.  Mostly games they released on the consoles and finnaly gotten around to releasing a PC port.  Meanwhile 1/4 of the store was dedicated to Xbox, Wii, PS3.


Food for thought.

Wab

[Spikes]

I personally think the PC will not be going away for a long time. I stopped buying Call of Duty for 2 reasons. One being the fact that their ideas are now junk, in my own opinion 4 was one of the best ones (being the first modern day one). Second, they didn't design it for PC, instead did the port-over from console. I remember having dedicated 50-man servers, now you can have a max of 12 in a server? You end up spending more time running around with your thumb up your butt than anything. Battlefield BC2 and 3 have it right.

Maybe desktops themselves might be going away, think about it. It is easier to buy a console for a few hundred dollars that can play a bunch of different games, than to buy a $1000+ dollar gaming computer that can play the same games with graphics turned up. But personally, I don't like consoles.

Laptops and tablets have taken over in today's world only because of portability...I have an iPad for on campus since I'd rather not lug my laptop around when I can hop on the tablet to check email, or whatever I need to do. Still, the device I still use the most is my desktop.

[Mar]

Food for thought.

I just threw up.

Every time I buy a game for the xbox instead of the pc I'm paying more and getting less.

I can do whatever I want with my PC. I can wire up USB devices and make them do whatever I want too. I'm also one of those guys that likes to self-troubleshoot, I learn a lot from it. I wouldn't learn anything using an iWhatever.

I have absolutely no use for those tiny little time-waster phone games. If you're gunna play games why not do it right?

Just me I guess.

[CptTrips]

I just threw up.

Every time I buy a game for the xbox instead of the pc I'm paying more and getting less.

I can do whatever I want with my PC. I can wire up USB devices and make them do whatever I want too. I'm also one of those guys that likes to self-troubleshoot, I learn a lot from it. I wouldn't learn anything using an iWhatever.

I have absolutely no use for those tiny little time-waster phone games. If you're gunna play games why not do it right?

Just me I guess.

Heh.  I'm not saying I prefer it.  I'm just saying the way things seem to be trending.  Heck I prefered the way they used to make cars.  Now everything is electronic chips and hard to fix yourself.  Think they'll change them all back for me?

On the console games, well, thats just the way its going to go.  The market is so more larger, the testing effort is so much easier with a single locked down platform, and there is much less possibility or rampant piracy.  Profit margins are way superior in the console world.

As far as the iWhatevers, well, pimply face, jolt cola drinking hardcore games are always going to prefer more depth than what you'll probably see on the mobiles.  Though, more and more, they are prefering console to PC.

What you are getting in the mobile world are the vast herds of people who never considered themselves as gamers.  They probably whould pickup a xbox controller but a LOT of them have smart phones and tablets now and are gaming for the first time.   They prefer the lighter, more casual games that can be played with fingertips in 5 minute increments they have to spare here and there.  But they out number the hardcore gamers 20 to 1.  So companies find it hard to ignore those dallar signs.

Wab

[Babalonian]

I think that it's a shift and evolution.

Remember, the PC was only for the enthusiast and geeks before the advent of America Online (AOL).  After that and during the dawn of unlimited free beverage coasters via postal service (AOL discs (and floppys, who remembers those, I do!)), I don't think there was an enthusiast or computer geek that didn't get hit up by a neighbor/friend/family member for a basic system/rig/tool for their own personal use to meet their need/desire to explore and discover this revolutionary new thing called the internet.

PCs have been the primary tool/vehicle for those wishing access to the internet for the last decade and a half (almost two).  But that IS ALL most users look upon them as and utilise them for - the internet box.  Times are changing, they've been for a good decade or near-decade (7-8 years).  Now the most user-friendly and ideal method/tool to meet their needs is the smartphone or XBox/PS3 - devices dependent on the internet/connection but who offer as a secondary feature the tool/vehicle that your most-generic internet-savy person wants and needs (as most really don't _need_ a full PC to converse with fellow facebook/twitter cultists or at most play farmville).

[Wiley]

Babalonian's got the right of it, IMO.  I worry because I happen to like things like AH, and Star Citizen, and games like that.  Maybe consoles will one day pick up the slack for peripherals.  I really don't care if I plug my HOTAS into an Xbox 1440 or a PC, as long as I can get something like AH on it.

PC gaming is getting more and more niche as time goes on.  I worry it will die out and we'll be left with stuff that has round based gameplay like World of Tanks and other similar games.

Wiley.

[coombz]

Babalonian's got the right of it, IMO.  I worry because I happen to like things like AH, and Star Citizen, and games like that.  Maybe consoles will one day pick up the slack for peripherals.  I really don't care if I plug my HOTAS into an Xbox 1440 or a PC, as long as I can get something like AH on it.

PC gaming is getting more and more niche as time goes on.  I worry it will die out and we'll be left with stuff that has round based gameplay like World of Tanks and other similar games.

Wiley.

I think this is correct, bottom line is it's easier and more profitable for game developers to make something for the console market, mainly because they don't have to work with/bug test the umpteen different hardware configurations that are possible - it's all pretty much standardised on consoles

plus, although piracy still exists in the console world, it is far far less prevalent than in the world of PC gaming. why bust your donut for years and years making a game for the PC when 50% of people will just pirate it?

on the other hand, I do think PC will always have a place for specialist games. just that niche will get smaller and smaller as time goes on

[Motherland]

Only 12 percent said that they'd be switching to a Mac OS based personal computer. The 30% who would buy an iPad aren't going to stop using a personal computer, it's not like tablets are practical for every application, even if they're becoming more common as people find more uses for them.

[CptTrips]

If I had to bet, I'd say the big square beige box we think of as a Desktop PC is on the way out.  

I see the world falling into smart phones, consoles for AAA gaming and general media serving, and "convertables" that look like a laptop but whose screen can be ripped off and used as a touch enabled tablet.

I see hardcore gaming becoming more and more fringe for major publishers.  Its just the tyranny of large numbers.

On the otherhand, I think the digital store like Steam, and the various AppStores, are ushering a golden age of indie developers we haven't seen since the early days of PC shareware.  They can get access to potentially huge customer bases and bypass the traditional publisher plantation system.  Thats where your hardcore gaming will still cling on, the small indie shops delivering digitally.

Just daydreaming about the future as I sit home sick getting high on cough syrup seeing visions.

Wab

[Babalonian]

I think it's just going to shrink, the home PC user/enthusiast market that is.  It will still exist and be driven by those who are really into it.  It won't be pleasant though, between being spoiled by the internet revolution and the investors backing stock associated with it, having snatched the bulk of that sweet mothers milk won't be met without loud cries and wimpers.

In a way though, this brings up the conversation of just WTH is micro$oft thinking most recently???....  are they giving up the home/buisness/enthusuiast PC OS market and/or just making the opportunity today to invite in outside competition - because what would happen if tomorrow someone came out with an OS better than windows 7 and it isn't what windows 8 is?  Win8 is IMHO is really wierd for micro$oft, it's blatantly a turn away from the nerds and geeks in the garage (toying and testing with computers for whatever needs/means) and to the generic consumer electronics user (i$'s realm).

[Wolfala]

I'm not going to be doing Excel spreadsheets on a laptop with a 12 inch screen or an iPad

[CptTrips]

In a way though, this brings up the conversation of just WTH is micro$oft thinking most recently???.... 

This is what they are thinking:
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/07/iphone-revenue-greater-than-all-of-microsofts/

Everything they do, every business unit, their Client Server OS, Office, Visual Studio, Sharepoint, SQL, etc, etc...
Everything they have combined, makes less revenue than JUST the iPhone.

Just the iPhone.

They are thinking the part of the river they have a claim on is pretty much "panned-out". 

Wab

[Karnak]

I think we're more likely to see more integration with a home system that acts as PC/game machine kept in the closet and on 24/7 with mobile devices such as phones and tablets used to interface with it as well as the TV/living room setup and home office setups.

[CptTrips]

I think we're more likely to see more integration with a home system that acts as PC/game machine kept in the closet and on 24/7 with mobile devices such as phones and tablets used to interface with it as well as the TV/living room setup and home office setups.

Yeah I can see that.   

However, I think MS sees that hub as the XBox eventually.  And I think APple sees that as being the future AppleTV.

Of course for all that to really work beautifully all the data and content need to be on the cloud so you can get to it all even when you are at Starbucks.   

[Ack-Ack]

PC gaming is getting more and more niche as time goes on. 
Wiley.

No it's not and there really isn't any evidence to back up such a claim. 

ack-ack