“In a sign of the changing times, the biggest computer trade show in Asia is light on personal computers this year,” Eva Dou and Aries Poon report for The Wall Street Journal.
“Acer Inc., Asia’s second-largest PC maker by shipments behind Lenovo Group Ltd., for the first time didn’t launch any new computers at this year’s Computex show in Taipei and only showcased smaller products such as smartwatches and smartphones,” Dou and Poon report. “Intel Corp., supplier of chips powering most PCs, focused its presentations on new software features and mobile devices instead. And the slate of speakers included a slot for Tsai Ming-kai, the chairman of Taiwanese smartphone-chip maker MediaTek Inc.”
“Manufacturers have tilted their launches toward mobile and wearable devices as they look for new products to offset the PC sales decline. However, analysts said the crowds on the showroom floor have thinned out this year and there were no killer products to suggest the industry has reinvented itself out of its slump,” Dou and Poon report. “Despite the diminishing role of PCs at this year’s Computex, some technology executives are optimistic that the industry is evolving rather than declining. ‘I still think lots of money can be made in this industry,’ said Ian Drew, chief marketing officer of British chip design firm ARM Holdings PLC, whose chip architecture is used in the majority of mobile devices. ‘You just need to adapt to a new world, not staying in the old world. If you stay in the old world, the market is shrinking.'”
Read more in the full article here.
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