How PC Makers Can Salvage PC Sales

Tim Bajarin

If you follow the PC industry, you know that demand for PCs continues to slide. The numbers aren’t yet in for 2015, but most researchers believe that PC sales will have declined at least 5 to 7 percent.

The decline in PC demand has had serious repercussions for the overall PC industry. Over the last five years, there has been significant consolidation. Just in December, Toshiba put its PC business up for sale, meaning another stalwart of the PC industry is getting out of a very tough market. It appears that the only companies with staying power in the PC market will be Lenovo, HP, and Dell mixed, with a lot of white-box PC makers that will go after localized businesses.

Many PC vendors are very concerned about the health of the business and are looking at ways to create stronger demand for PCs going forward. They admit that even the introduction of Windows 10 has not helped grow the market. Although they see enterprise accounts showing more interest in Windows 10 in 2016, the lack of growth in the consumer market suggests that PC sales will still decline about 2 to 3 percent in 2016.

Meanwhile, average prices for consumer PCs range from as low as $129 for a Windows PC with an Atom processor to about $399- $499, with very slim margins. The only good news is that the premium market, especially for laptops, has been strong in the enterprise and with high-end consumers, and that has helped those sectors mostly stay in the black when it comes to overall PC sales.

But all the vendors I talk to say that unless they can find a way to make the PC more vital to the computing experience, demand for PCs will continue to slide. No PC vendor is content to stand still and see this decline continue, however. They are all trying to enhance the overall user experience by introducing 3D cameras, speech navigation, better optical experiences, and facial recognition for secure access. They are also working hard to add virtual reality and augmented reality functionality to the PC, and are trying to make the PC itself much more indispensable to their customers.

Current PCs are functional and do what they need to, and hardware designs have made some major strides. But even factoring in Windows 10, with its advanced UI and features like Cortana and Continuum, a PC is still basically a PC. The promise of immersive computing with VR and AR tied to a PC, however, could deliver a richer experience, like the Oculus Rift. If done correctly, it could drive up demand for PCs in the near future.

I realize this is a tall order for those in the PC ecosystem, but if the PC stays like it is now, its decline is assured. If manufacturers have any chance of growing the PC market in the future, I think it will take nothing less than delivering the kind of immersive computing experience that you just can’t get anywhere except on a PC