The International Data Corporation‘s worldwide quarterly PC Tracker revealed on April 9 that global PC shipments totaled 68.5 million units in the first quarter of 2015. This marks a 6.7 percent decline year-on-year. This is the lowest recorded volume since the first quarter of 2009.
“Although shipments did exceed an already cautious forecast, the market unfortunately remains heavily dependent on pricing being a major driver, with entry SKU volume masking a still tenuous demand for higher priced systems that is needed to sustain a more diverse PC ecosystem,” said Jay Chou, senior research analyst. “Pricing pressure is bringing many premium SKUs into formerly mid-level pricing tiers.”
In the U.S., shipments totaled 14.2 million PCs in the first quarter of the year. This marks a one percent decrease from the same quarter in 2014. Results show that consumers have started buying more portable systems, such as Chromebooks.
Out of all PC manufacturers, Lenovo shined above the rest. The company managed to sell 13.4 million units in the first quarter of 13.4 million, making it the most successful vendor of the first quarter. HP came in second place with 13 million PCs sold, while Dell took third place with 9.2 million units.
Rajani Singh, senior research analyst at IDC’s Personal Computing division, believes that there is potential for the market to swing in the other direction. Microsoft may play a key role in creating positive change.
“The upcoming launch of Windows 10 will consolidate the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1,” Singh said. “In addition to the free upgrade for consumers for a year after the release, Windows 10 should be a net positive as there is pent-up demand for replacements of older PCs. Only part of the installed base needs to replace systems to keep the overall growth rate above zero for rest of the year.”
Sounds optimistic, but anything would be better than the recent trend of consistent year-over-year declines.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.