tablets to replace PCs?

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:21

Leapmotion won't replace anything, maybe mouse but unlikely. It'll complement existing controlls. Touch screens are allready the Defacto method with a huge margin.
Then on top of that you can look at the market growth stats.

No because a tablet has a much larger screen than a phone. However smart phones allready do and will maintain the biggest share for the foreseeable feature. Untill we get in the realms of reality through contacts or implants.

paradisiac · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:24

Angilion said:
What we might well see is an increase in tablet power to low games console levels and wireless connections to TVs and input devices, so a tablet can double as a games console.

but can you not end up with one device that tries to do everything ends up doing nothing overly well? is it not better to have something that is designed specifically for one task ie being a portable web browser/casual games OR being a games console. trying to get a device that does both will just end up with it doing both jobs ok, rather than one job well.

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:27

The desktop used to be a jack off all trades, that worked out great.

Thing is cost, most people want portable computing a tablet does that and can be added to. A desktop can't be changed into something else.

sven256 · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:30

Glaucus said:
The desktop used to jack off, that worked out great.

Thing is cost, most people want portable computing a tablet does that and can be added to. A desktop can't be changed into something else.

That's a bit rude.

paradisiac · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:31

Glaucus said:
The desktop used to be a jack off all trades, that worked out great.

Thing is cost, most people want portable computing a tablet does that and can be added to. A desktop can't be changed into something else.

but surely the power you would need to be a games console would come at a cost, ie heat. so fans etc would be needed, making it less desirable as it would be noisier and heavier. the reason people like smartphones and tablets is they are light and easier to transport. start adding more jobs for this 1 item to do and something has to give.

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:35

paradisiac said:
but surely the power you would need to be a games console would come at a cost, ie heat. so fans etc would be needed, making it less desirable as it would be noisier and heavier. the reason people like smartphones and tablets is they are light and easier to transport. start adding more jobs for this 1 item to do and something has to give.

Of course but again it comes to cost several £600 devices or 1 £700 device and a few attachments.

Then if the new atom is as good as it is touted to be and of course gamers is a small group.

paradisiac · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:40

Glaucus said:
Of course but again it comes to cost several £600 devices or 1 £700 device and a few attachments.

Then if the new atom is as good as it is touted to be and of course gamers is a small group.

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft seem to do ok with their consoles, so gaming cant be too bad a market. for a tablet to replace these and stay lightweight and silent is going to be very hard.
I am not implying at all you have said they will replace these devices, but it has been hinted at by some members that all there will be in the future is smartphones and tablets with docks.

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:43

paradisiac said:
Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft seem to do ok with their consoles, so gaming cant be too bad a market. for a tablet to replace these and stay lightweight and silent is going to be very hard.
I am not implying at all you have said they will replace these devices, but it has been hinted at by some members that all there will be in the future is smartphones and tablets with docks.

I was talking purly pc gaming, which compared to desktop market share is tiny.

Monkeynut · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:43

For the OP, I doubt his PC repair business will die down. He'll just switch focus - now he'll be replacing everyone's glass screens for money when the all of the idiots inevitably drop them.

Mark A · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:44

I remember when I built my first pc about 10 or so years ago there was a big thread on here about Laptops killing off the desktop. It never happened and the tablet will be no different.

paradisiac · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:46

Mark A said:
I remember when I built my first pc about 10 or so years ago there was a big thread on here about Laptops killing off the desktop. It never happened and the tablet will be no different.

but netbooks came out to replace the laptops, and that was a. oh, wait...............

tablets will have their place, as will smartphones. but they wont replace what people have now.

MADMAN · 29 Jul 2012 at 23:59

laptops are phasing out.... tablets and phones are in

HangTime · 30 Jul 2012 at 02:01

It's an interesting point you raise; as for whether you should be worried or not, I guess that depends on how flexible your business can be.

The key danger I suppose is that new devices (not limited to tablets) could start encroaching on the home PC market and the question is whether or not there is a support business for those devices. If these devices become much like other consumer electronics, basically devices that people buy in a shop then send them back for repair/replacement (or just buy a new one) if there is a problemm, then you may start feeling the squeeze.

Traditionally the need for a "PC man" was:
-Moving files around, e.g. from old systems to new
-Cleaning up virus etc
-Diagnosing faults (often software related)
-Upgrades
-Setting up network, internet, email etc

Some of these things may remain just in slightly different form. For example I'd recommend researching ways of porting files/configuration from PC to tablets and other mobile devices. e.g. Mrs Bloggs has a load of documents, pictures etc on her PC, outlook express for emails etc, now she wants to use an ipad and port all that stuff over. Different from porting to a new PC but to the end user they want the same outcome - if you can offer that service then maybe there is still a market.

ChrisJSY · 30 Jul 2012 at 02:24

As technology advances and size of hardware decreases, it's not just tablets and desktop computers that will exist. I'm not surprised if we'll have equivilent capabilities of your average high end gaming machine that's 1/4 the size of a desktop case, with all the ports your current market desires to plug in a screen/kb/mouse etc.

I think there will be a seperate product to tablets, or these device will incorperate together to create something else.

What it really comes down to is if you're docking a tablet to use a screen/kb/mouse and more powerful hardware due to consumption and charge capacities, you're bordering semantics on what you call it.
In the end of the day I don't care, chair, desk, large screen, typing device that keeps up, mouse to navigate, end.

B&W · 30 Jul 2012 at 02:31

When will hologram technology become mainstream or will it ever? Cant wait for that

Angilion · 30 Jul 2012 at 05:50

paradisiac said:
but can you not end up with one device that tries to do everything ends up doing nothing overly well?

Yes, and you usually do. But see below.

is it not better to have something that is designed specifically for one task ie being a portable web browser/casual games OR being a games console. trying to get a device that does both will just end up with it doing both jobs ok, rather than one job well.

It's better, yes, but the great majority of potential customers don't need that. OK is good enough for what most potential customers want, especially when there's enough power to brute force through the inefficiencies. There will be some customers who will want more specialised hardware because they want the efficiency for a specific type of task, but the majority of the market doesn't care. A very large part of the market cheerfully pays a premium for a fashionable name - why would people like that care about efficiency?

Making it OK at all the things the majority of potential customers want and making it convenient is what'll work best for the mass market.

konicky · 30 Jul 2012 at 06:29

Mark A said:
I remember when I built my first pc about 10 or so years ago there was a big thread on here about Laptops killing off the desktop. It never happened and the tablet will be no different.

Yes it did! Remember, we are talking about the general population here not hardcore gamers.

The market share of desktops is minuscule these days

MADMAN · 30 Jul 2012 at 10:32

was in vodafone and was watching students and young people spending tons loads on contracts/phones.... there always looking at £400-600 phones even.

Same applies with tablets and mobiles, I think they feel more at home with them.

I think desktops/laptops are more becoming work only related.... people wanna be chilled out and portable fun sorta thing.

SKILL · 30 Jul 2012 at 11:57

In general I see tablets taking off, but more at the expense of laptops than desktops as such, but that's accepting that a lot of users are already moving from desktops already to portable devices like laptops.

The problem does come still with capabilities, the cheap tablets will still be ARM based and not really capable of fully replacing a laptop/pc, whilst the tablets that can replace a laptop/pc do so at a large cost (£1000+ for the pro tablet? that's not going to sell well compared to a £300 laptop to an average home user...), as well as taking away some of the plus points of tablets such as battery life and portability

I reckon we'll see a general case of most people owning a desktop or laptop and a smartphone and probably a tablet as well, covering all bases, I think it will be a very long time until we see the majority of people with just a tablet and smartphone...

Richdog said:
You can hook up an xbox or ps3 controller to a phone or tablet with little effort. Same with a mouse. I didn't say the exact same games would necessarily be on mobile platforms (though many will undoubtedly be), but games will certainly start to rival console quality.

And like I linked to earlier, cloud gaming will in the future let you play top games on almost any hardware.

The graphical power of mobile chips is nowhere near that of desktop chips, not even of several years ago, and yes they are making decent improvements but that's from a very low level, you'd be talking a 100x improvement or more from the best mobile chips to equal a current graphics card and that simply isn't going to happen anytime soon.

They do some ok games due to the low res being used, but (true) 1080p which is what will be the standard for the next-gen consoles along with the same quality of graphics as consoles just isn't going to happen.

And then there's cost, yes they're cheaper currently and that is, at least in part, a reason for the large number of downloads/installs but how much of that cheapness is due to them being very simple/small games, not produced to the same quality and scale as modern console/pc games? Will people pay £30 per game for tablet gaming? not likely...

And cloud gaming, anybody seriously still thinks this can work? FPS and Racing games are both fairly large genre's and both require latency beyond which cloud gaming can ever provide, it might work for some of the niche genre's like RTS games but that's not going to provide much of an income compared to FPS

ThomasTheTankEngine · 30 Jul 2012 at 12:40

konicky said:
Yes it did! Remember, we are talking about the general population here not hardcore gamers.

The market share of desktops is minuscule these days

Don't under-estimate the number of people still using a desktop. Home users buy more laptops and tablets, but many businesses still use the mighty desktop.

Market sales don't accurately reflect usage, because desktops tend to have a much longer usable life than laptops or tablets.

You mention hardcore gamers, but 95% of us don't even register as having bought a desktop, as we buy components and not complete systems.