x86 PC Shipments Off 8 Percent Q3 of 2012 at Robert Pogson

“Worldwide PC shipments totaled 87.5 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a decline of 8.3 percent compared with the third quarter of 2011, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.”

see Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Declined 8 Percent in Third Quarter of 2012 as the Market Prepares for the Launch of Windows 8.

M$ is probably laughing all the way to the bank as OEMs pay them for licences that will never be used by consumers for “8″ RTM. OEMs will be wailing and gnashing teeth in a couple of months when they realize they have been conned by M$ into investing in new hardware running “8″. OEMs will have to install “7″ or GNU/Linux on all those units sooner or later eating up all their margin for months.

Such is the decline of Wintel, members of the gang killing each other off in the struggle for the remaining revenue.

Lest some pronounce that such was the case when “7″ was introduced, the corresponding report then was “STAMFORD, Conn., October 13, 2010—
Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 88.3 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 7.6 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. These third quarter results were below Gartner’s earlier market outlook. Gartner had expected third quarter PC shipments to grow 12.7 percent.”

Then sales were five percent off predictions. Today they are not just growing less than expected but seriously declining. Combine that with web stats five times lower than “7″ had pre-release (0.19%)… The only question is will the train-wreck be worse than Lose ME or Vista? Sean Gallagher thinks it could cause divorce, violence or worse…“If even a tenth of a percent of new Windows 8 users respond with the level of dismay and distress my wife did, Microsoft and those unlucky enough to be in frontline tech support are going to be at the business end of a volcanic eruption of hate.”

So, I won’t be alone at Hallowe’en, hating M$. 2013 could be a great year for adoption of GNU/Linux. Tens of millions of M$’s slaves/sheeple could be angry enough to switch to an OS that works for them, not against them. I recommend the angry try Debian GNU/Linux. They may find it runs well enough on their old PC that they won’t want to buy a new one.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.

8 Responses to “x86 PC Shipments Off 8 Percent Q3 of 2012”

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1 kozmcrae Oct 10th, 2012 at 10:00 pm

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! The Cult of Microsoft will have to invent a new spin on this one. Start off with, “No new spin needed Koz.” Chris.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Yeah, that’s the ticket.
2 Chris Weig Oct 11th, 2012 at 1:22 am

So, I won’t be alone at Hallowe’en, hating M$.

Great plan, Bob. Have fun wallowing in self-pity and blaming Microsoft for your sorrows! I assume the venerable Cult of FLOSS members kozmcrae, oiaohm and dougman will join you. Make some “M$” pumpkins, will you?
3 oiaohm Oct 11th, 2012 at 3:52 am

Chris Weig really the fail of the system does not make a person like me happy.

A blood bath could cause some major problems. Remember some of these OEM’s have large stock piles of patents and if they fall into patent trolls we could have another round of problems.
4 oiaohm Oct 11th, 2012 at 3:56 am

Chris Weig I was hoping for the blood bath to start happen after the release of the next version of MS Office as a gradual slow down and weakling of MS control.

10 percent drop in over all sales is not a gradual slowdown and change. This could be very much like a car crash form of stop possible. Currently skidding a little so possible to avoid road block head. Problem is if Microsoft does not.
5 Robert Pogson Oct 11th, 2012 at 6:21 am

Chris Weig wrote, “Make some “M$” pumpkins, will you?”

Excellent idea! That should scare the little creatures. How to carve a “$” in a pumpkin is a challenge. Perhaps I could leave little strips to support the internal pieces… or insert a transparency…
6 dougman Oct 11th, 2012 at 8:13 am

Windows 8 will bomb, but then M$ will allow people to roll-back to Windows 7, all the while double-counting both sales.
7 kozmcrae Oct 11th, 2012 at 12:44 pm

Chris Weig wrote:

Nothing. Nothing to be proud of anyway. Nothing good in the way of news for Microsoft. Nothing but bad news for Microsoft. That’s the way it’s been. That’s the way it’s been more and more. A steady stream of bad news.

Microsoft is so big that it will take a whole lot of bad new before it just becomes totally irrelevant. So dig in Chris. You’ve got a long way to go before it’s over. And I’m going to be laughing at you all the way.
8 ram Nov 30th, 2012 at 9:23 pm

Unfortunately those unsold boxes are heading for the tip. With UEFI they are useless for anything else. Recyclers will probably strip out the power supplies and dismantle the cases, but the motherboards are all scrap.