Maybe the real reason for the decline in PC sales is that we're keeping them for longer, because the hardware has finally gotten well ahead of Microsoft or Apple's best efforts to bleed every cycle out of the machines with more "features"?
I'm still running the same Dell Precision T5400 workstation that I got back in early 2008'ish. It's got 2 x Xeon E5450's (3Ghz 4 core), 12GB of RAM, an nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS card and a pair of SSD's (these were a recent upgrade). In fact I have two of these boxes, the other has a single processor. The dual processor one I picked up for a song on ebay as a refurb. There's a lot of good solid refurb/second hand kit to be had out there still under warranty for peanuts. As a consumer, why buy new?
To this day it still runs Windows 7 (was Vista), VS2012, VirtualBox and a load of bloaty stuff without feeling slow. Hell I can even run four Eve clients at a decent quality across two 24" displays and the box doesn't feel sluggish, though my video card could probably do with an upgrade.
I have a tablet as well but I still prefer (as do many of my non-techy friends) doing serious work on a desktop.
PC sales are declining because more people are realising that they do not need one. They can do most things - surf web, consume content - more comfortably on a tablet which is a fraction of the cost of a decent computer.
Your point also holds true, PC owners are upgrading less often also.
As for the web dying it depends on your circle I guess. My partner doesn't have a smart phone.. she does have an iPad but doesn't make use of the App Store and instead uses the camera and Safari daily. My parents have smart phones and tablets but hardly use apps. Instead relying on browsers and their laptop do any real work. I can only think of one or two friends who use apps out side of standard mail, navigation, twitter and facebook.
I think a lot of tech people are stuck in a bubble, surrounded by other tech savvy people who are ultra dependant on technology and app's in particular which leads to sweeping statements like "the web is dying." I see little evidence to support such an idea at the moment.
"I think a lot of tech people are stuck in a bubble, surrounded by other tech savvy people who are ultra dependant on technology and app's in particular which leads to sweeping statements like "the web is dying." I see little evidence to support such an idea at the moment."
Totally agree with this (from the perspective of a web hoster), I think there's a few folks who need to get out of "the valley" a bit more.
I'm still running the same Dell Precision T5400 workstation that I got back in early 2008'ish. It's got 2 x Xeon E5450's (3Ghz 4 core), 12GB of RAM, an nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS card and a pair of SSD's (these were a recent upgrade). In fact I have two of these boxes, the other has a single processor. The dual processor one I picked up for a song on ebay as a refurb. There's a lot of good solid refurb/second hand kit to be had out there still under warranty for peanuts. As a consumer, why buy new?
To this day it still runs Windows 7 (was Vista), VS2012, VirtualBox and a load of bloaty stuff without feeling slow. Hell I can even run four Eve clients at a decent quality across two 24" displays and the box doesn't feel sluggish, though my video card could probably do with an upgrade.
I have a tablet as well but I still prefer (as do many of my non-techy friends) doing serious work on a desktop.