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back to article Intel Skylake delays, Win10 and stock glut blamed for Q4 PC sales shrinkage

PC sales into the EMEA channel bombed in Q4 - it was partly the fault of Microsoft for releasing a free upgrade to Win10 but mostly due to high stocks levels that continued to plague retailers and disties. The mages at Gartner estimated that 22.5 million boxes were shipped into third party sellers in the final quarter of 2015 …

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  1. ColonelClaw

    I'm not really getting why Windows 10 could be responsible. It's clearly an improvement on W8/8.1. Does HP think that buyers of their Win8/8.1 machines hate the OS so much that they would be willing to buy a whole new PC? Even if MS charged for Win10, the Win8/8.1 PCs would be so new as to make it worth paying for the upgrade, rather than ditching the machine.

    Is there something I'm missing here?

    0 0 Reply
    1. frank ly
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      That seems like a reasonable rationale to me. Also, I wonder how many people actually need a new PC?

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        I now wonder: Do consumers actually WANT a Windows PC anymore?

        The Turkeys in Redmond voted for Christmas.

        2 0 Reply
      2. JamesC76
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        Agreed

        I'm running an i7-3770 that I built almost 3 years ago and as much as I'd like to build a new one it's just difficult to justify the cost when, for my purpose, I don't think it'd make much of a difference.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
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      "I'm not really getting why Windows 10 could be responsible. ... Does HP think that buyers of their Win8/8.1 machines hate the OS so much that they would be willing to buy a whole new PC?"

      AIUI HP were complaining that the final [sic] production build of W10 was made available to them too close to release date & this blocked production. But that doesn't seem to tally with tales of unsold stock clogging the warehouses.

      0 0 Reply
  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Then there are all the Craptops

    You know those low price units that Dell, HP and everyone else seems to sell.

    The ones with 1366x768 screens and a cheapo dual core CPU.

    The ones with plastic cases that break when you look at them.

    The figures from another article today for MacBooks seem to tell a different story. They are selling more by volume (note not price). Surely that has to mean (start gnashing your teeth Apple haters) that there are people converting to Apple from bog standard Windows PC's.

    Faced with that, why would ordinary people buy a PC that is just as good (or worse) than the one they already have? That IMHO is the question facing Dell, Lenovo etc.

    4 0 Reply
  3. CheesyTheClown

    Features not performance

    I just bought a Surface Book... I would have bough the Surface Pro 4, but the Surface Book looked so much cooler. I was leaving my old job and I didn't know if I'd manage to keep my Surface Pro 3, so I ordered a Surface Book for $3200 after all the taxes and shipping and absolutely love it.

    It's basically just a laptop and I can virtualize a small data center on it while presenting. I've had 20 virtual machines and 20 routers and switches up and running on it. This is too much machine for almost any real purpose.

    These days, thinner and lighter is no longer a feature... we're thin enough and light enough. Longer battery? They're up to 12 hours now. More powerful... 99% of everyone probably is more than happy with a Core i3 and 4 gigs... maybe 8 of RAM. Better graphics... maybe... I did buy Final Fantasy XIII just to have something to test my new laptop with... then I moved on... no real point. Better screen? 3000x2000 on a 13" screen allows me to make the text smaller than I can comfortably read and I have better eyesight than most... probably the only thing I have that works well.

    I wouldn't mind :

    A better pen, I carry a Wacom Cintiq with me because the Surface Pen (and iPad Pro Stylus) suck so bad they're useless.

    Better support for iPhone headset volume control buttons.

    Thunderbolt would be nice, though I'm not sure why.

    An SD card port that is flush with the card so it doesn't dangle.

    A second screen has always been on my wish list... but I can't see this being a major selling point.

    Better wireless display support

    A better power brick adapter... can't really say I like the Surface Pro one and USB-C tends to suck up one of my precious USB ports requiring me to carry a hub with me.

    Make the entire PC detachable as a phone... in other words, find a way to fit the Core i7, 16gigs of RAM and 512GB SSD into a phone and make the Surface Book a screen, video card, battery and keyboard attachment.

    Better touch pad... this one feels too much like the Apple one and I abandoned Apple because of their absolutely awful keyboard and touchpad.

    0 3 Reply
  4. AMCMO

    One minor point you omitted which was in both Gartner and IDC stats, Mac sales GREW during that period, so blaming it entirely in Win 10 and stock is incorrect. There were clearly switchers in the mix

    1 0 Reply

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