Windows 9 Very Unlikely to Save the Collapsing PC Market, IDC Says

Yea I don't see the pc disappearing in my lifetime. Sales may slow down, doesn't mean the pc is going anywhere. It merely means that the market is saturated. Everybody's got at least one. Plus, given the relative power of today's machines, they'll be lasting for a good long time.

In all honesty tablets (and to an extent phones) will probably satisfy the average users needs i.e. music, video, social media, browsing, etc. But governments, companies, gamers, military and so on will always be using PC's.

Hi there.

I think people like IDC and Gartner can be totally IGNORED -- a GROWING -- yes GROWING part of the PC business is the demand for "Mini Desktops" -- these are really great - tiny footprint, powerful and great to use as streamer servers or all sorts of other things - and being FANLESS -- no noise -- means they can also be placed without a load of cables in places where it looks messy or horrible to have a PC -- for example I HATE the idea of a PC in my lounge / TV viewing area etc but could easily put up with the mini desktop.

Read this (I rather fancy one or even two of the Intel boxes myself).

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/...ry-says-intel/

One mod which would be great IMO for udsing these as STEAM / Entertainment type boxes as well as PC's would be to have some Mouse functions such as the basic navigation incorporated into a TV remote control - a wireless mouse can of course still be used but for some basic functions the TV remote IMO is a good idea -- and mice can get lost quite easily when they are in places like general rooms in the house used by several people (or dogs who seem to have a fascination for them !!).

Cheers
jimbo

Hi there alphanumeric -- I wasn't referring to the OS actually being used on these but the fact that this is ONE PC sector that's actually growing.

I've now ordered TWO of the INTEL boxes --I'm going to run one as a Linux server running a Virtualized W2012 server (while I can still get it from TechNet) and the other as primarily an "Entertainment" machine --TV / Video / Audio streaming etc.

I'm long past the days where I liked building and designing rigs "for fun" - although if people want to do that there's still plenty of good value "classic" type Mobos out there. In any case "Home rig builders" were always a minority -- like people tinkering around with Cars/boats/planes etc.

I love the small footprint of these - and there's sufficient power on these too--also if you really do need loads of expansion - nice USB3 expansion hubs are readiliy available (or even USB2).

Dissing these as "Overblown / oversize Tablets" is ridiculous.

If these two work out OK I'll get a 3rd as a general purpose desktop OS and give away my old Tower box PC's.

Judging by the sales volumes people do LIKE these devices and for a lot of things you can't use a purely touch device like a tablet.

Cheers
jimbo