And I build my own desktop machines as well as build them for others. For those who appreciate the advantage of having the position of every component in the box, as well as the box itself, competed for by hundreds of companies killing each other for the chance to sell you a better component for a cheaper price, there will never be a replacement for a desktop machine.
When you compare the prices of a homebuilt machine and a laptop of similar abilities, it is very difficult to pull the trigger on the laptop, especially when you are totally dependent on the manufacturer of the laptop for replacement components.
But there are no new people buying computers. It's simply a replacement market now and there are legitimate reasons to own a laptop or tablet that replaces a desktop machine. So the desktop market is irretrevably shrinking. It will not vanish.
Personally, I haven't bought a new computer since 2007, when I first built my present machine. But it has been extensively reconfigured several times since then and other than the box, only optical drives remain from the 2007 version. I'll never have to buy a new computer again, just maintain and upgrade components.
To the PC market I've vanished. But I'm still buying components all the time.
|