Repair shops for computers adjust with continuous decrease in desktops

Arlington Andrews, the owner of Digital Addition, nowadays has laptop sales that are four times as many as the desktops. He also repairs fewer desktops than laptops.  Mr. Andrews said that the laptops are now cheaper than they used to be a few years ago. He sells used PCs for $ 150 and laptops for around $200 -$300. He said that everyone nowadays has smartphones and tablets and they also like laptops. He added that people love freedom with their devices and they do not like to be always plugged with a cord.

With the continued drop in the price of tablets and smartphones, people operating computer repair shops expect the sales of the conventional personal computers to continue declining. Mr. Andrews said that the laptops were very popular amongst the students but the businesses and schools still preferred the personal computers. Gartner Inc, a market researcher, has reported that with the continued preference of the smartphones and tablets, the shipment of personal computers has dropped for a fifth continuous quarter, which is the longest decline duration in the market history of PCS. According to Gartner Inc, the worldwide shipment of personal computers fell in the 2^nd quarter of 2013 to 76 million units, a 10.9% drop from the same period in 2012.

Mikkako Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner, said that they were seeing a trend where the market for the PCs is facing a reduction that is tied directly to the dwindling installed base of the personal computers as the cheap tablets were displacing the low-end machines that are mainly used in the developed and mature networks. He added that in the emerging market, the cheap tablets had become the preferred computing device for most people, who are suspending the buying of a personal computer. He also said that this was accounting for the caving in of the market for mini notebook.

Jason Percival, the owner of NEPA Geeks, also repairs more tablets, smartphones and laptops than desktops. He has been in the computer repair business for 15 years and has seen the coming of this trend for a while now. He said that had already adjusted their repair business so as to accommodate the new trend. Mr. Percival said that he had seen that smartphones were taking over each day’s basic tasks and even though PCs were needed for content creation and program development, the current trend is one of a more laptop environment in most of the scenarios. He added that there wasn’t a significant difference in the performance of laptops and PCs but most people preferred the former because they like being on the move and the portability of the laptops offered just that.

Jody Fitzsimmons, Grove Media’s president and chief executive officer, said that he had noted a decline in all the products of Apple this year though he attributes this decline to the economy. However, he finds that the students prefer laptops as they like carrying them to class. They also prefer them for surfing and doing assignments. He also added that the students preferred iPhones for texting, making phone calls, checking the emails quickly and playing games.