Shipments of PC hardware suffer worst decline on record - Report

Windows 8 will have something to do with it, but I'd say it also has to do with people not needing to uprade their machines as much as they used to (I used to upgrade my gaming rig every 6-12 months, but have been happily using the same one for the last 2 years now. People who don't use their rigs for gaming have even less reason to upgrade).

windows 8 is too much like apple. I'm going to stick with 7 and Ubuntu.

It's almost like people don't like it or something. Windows 8 does a lot of things right, but the things that a lot of people enjoyed were either altered or gotten rid of entirely. Asking everyone to go from a traditional hardware setup to one that requires applications as the dominant form of software expansion is something that a lot of people just aren't interested in. Add the fact that the setup is radically different from previous incarnations of Windows and you have a recipe for lowered sales especially in the beginning.

this is why pc's should not focus on one OS. I have high hopes that linux or android will make a competing pc os in the near future. with more companies taking an interest in linux as an alternative, we will see if they can unify the different versions. Im sure any alternative would be welcomed at this point. especially since MS has made it clear they are more interested in consoles, and phones.

windows 8 was a scheme

While Windows 8 is terrible, most people (kids) who want to see it fail are console gamers. They (kids) are unable to afford 300 dollar graphic cards and stuck with basic modding, hardly zero addons to their console games. It's no wonder why SOME want the PC to fail.

I blame Suckindows 8. Windows 7 is what everyone asked for and Windows 8 is what nobody asked for...

funny how people spread rumors about pc declining or dying when they are so false.. the market for pc has increased so much in the last year or at least in the gaming field, and who the heck buys prebuilts? these stats are just based on something we know to be true no one buys prebuilts we build pcs ourselves

And the sky is blue. Everybody in modern time knows PC is dying.

Is this about PCs as a whole or desktops/laptops.

I seriously doubt Windows 8 is the reason. Maybe it's because people have tablets, phones, and consoles that do what most people need a PC to do so they just buy/use one of those instead. Also I don't get the "removal of the familiar Start button" gripe, the start button is still there, you don't have to use the metro dashboard if you don't want to, you can easily make it so it looks and acts like windows xp/7.

Dell desktops are noisy clunky crappy things... no wonder interest is declining.

I say build something much better and much quieter and have freedom of choice for OS and hardware upgrades.

OR... explore small companies that build quiet PCs.

Am I the only one around here that actually like Windows 8 better than Windows 7?

Its because windows 8 is garbage, not because tablets and stuff, Microsoft seems to be to arrogant to admit that windows 8 is one of they're worst products.

I don't want Windows 8, I'm not touching anything that requires me to buy 8. Windows 7 is perfect.

Take that Microsoft, we no longer need Windows... and I hope Valve kick your ass.

Misleading title? At first, I thought they were referring to individual sales of hardware components, then the article goes into detail about prebuilt PC's.

I believe this doesn't include the numbers of people who buy their own parts (like me) and instead includes only those who buy pre-built computers. Pre-builds are a thing of the past, building a computer is easy as pie. The PC market is not suffering, everybody's just ignoring Windows 8 because Windows 7 is still pretty great. Microsoft fucked up on 8 for sure. That's a loss for them, and a loss for the stupid pre-build manufacturers who chose to all switch to the new shitty Windows.