Submitted via IRC for Bytram
PC market flat, as Surface becomes a top-5 computer brand in the US
Microsoft was the fifth-biggest PC maker in the US in the third quarter of this year, according to industry advisory firm Gartner.
The top spot in the US belongs to HP, with about 4.5 million machines sold, ahead of Dell at 3.8 million, Lenovo at 2.3 million, and Apple at 2 million. The gap between fourth and fifth is pretty big—Microsoft sold only 0.6 million Surface devices last quarter—but it suggests that Microsoft's PC division is heading in the right direction, with sales 1.9 percent higher than the same quarter last year. The company pushed down to sixth place was Acer.
The current quarter should be better still; the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, and Surface Studio have all been given hardware refreshes which, when combined with the always-busy holiday season, should stimulate higher sales.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jasassin on Monday October 15 2018, @12:55PM (4 children)
I read somewhere the battery in the surface is glued in. Non replaceable battery is a deal breaker for me.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 4, Informative) by SpockLogic on Monday October 15 2018, @01:24PM
The quest for thinner and lighter may not be your friend.
A dab of glue is cheaper and lighter than a couple of screws, just don't expect the cost reduction to be reflected in the price of the product because .... profit.
Oh, don't buy anything from Apple for this very reason, but you know that already, don't you.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 5, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Monday October 15 2018, @07:18PM (1 child)
The battery is glued in, but a bit of clever work with Dental floss makes it easy to remove. That isn't the hard part. You have to remove the screen to get to the SSD or the battery. That has me sweating, as removing it requires gingerly guitar-picking the 0.4mm thick glued in glass screen. It's takes some finesse to remove without damage. I've done successfully on a Surface Pro 3.
My understanding is the big driver for the engineering decision is device durability and density. It makes a measurable difference in both.
Full Disclosure: I work for Microsoft as a PFE supporting enterprise customers. This is my opinion and not that of my employer, and I'm not being paid to write this.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @06:22PM
you couldn't get honorable work instead? by working for these scum you are a slaveware peddler and complicit in the enslavement of your fellow man. sad...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @06:19PM
being made directly by slaveware peddler #1 ought to be a goddamn dealer breaker for you too.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 15 2018, @01:29PM (3 children)
What, exactly, is wrong with a "flat market"? I can understand that a flat market isn't going to make huge, dramatic profits from one quarter to the next. But - it's still a market. It's worth investing in, because it isn't going away. "Flat" is almost synonymous with "stable". No one sensible invests all his money in unstable markets. That's where you invest money that you can afford to lose.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday October 15 2018, @01:39PM
Because Marketers would be out of a job if they can't show constant growth.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday October 15 2018, @02:13PM (1 child)
Most stock markets require X% growth per year or they consider the business failed, even if it is making money.
Of course, with the market saturation of PCs; they only way they can do it is by building in planned obsolescence or intentionally shoddy hardware.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 5, Funny) by Nerdfest on Monday October 15 2018, @03:02PM
Awwww, don't be mean to Microsoft. They don't do it intentionally, it's just the best they can do.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Monday October 15 2018, @02:33PM (4 children)
From the surface pro link:
Black? Fantastic? Well now, if that isn't stretching for something good to say. Black is black. It's not even a color. It's the lack of color. Everything that has been shit out of a Chinese factory for the last ~15 years or so has been black. Toxic black sludge. Black with black buttons that light up black when you press them. Black connectors that you can't plug in in low light because you cant SEE them. There is nothing "fantastic" about black computer cases and there never will be.
Oh, they threw in some eyeball incinerating blue LEDs to make up for it? How kind of them.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday October 15 2018, @03:38PM (1 child)
They're paid to say nice things about the Surface and... well.... black is the new 'shiny'?
Advertising: making something out of nothing.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 15 2018, @05:38PM
Black is beautiful!
*ducks*
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday October 15 2018, @06:29PM (1 child)
Feel free to throw it into the sun at the end of the concert.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @05:52PM
"I understood that reference"
- Captain America
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday October 15 2018, @07:08PM
FTFA :
Whether it is the "right" direction depends on your viewpoint. I consider it the wrong direction; I wish Microsoft would FOAD.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday October 16 2018, @08:49AM
I thought PC gaming market was rising above and beyond console last year? This year it is flat. Could it be because GFX prices are yet to crash as much as bitcoin? Every year seems a little too fine grained for a market as big as PC.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 16 2018, @11:29AM
Maybe the market's flat because they've stopped selling machines with increasingly great specs. I went into Micro Center a couple months ago to get some peripherals, and for giggles wandered through the computer section. Every single machine for sale had worse specs than what I bought 5 years ago. I couldn't believe it. I would have thought the gamers and bitcoin miners would have pushed the market at least a little bit.
Perhaps everyone has moved on from shrink-wrapped machines to building their own custom rigs from components?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @01:26PM
I think if you restricted the figures to consumers who had bought one by choice, and excluded employees who had had one foisted on them as part of a corporate strategy, then (as with their phones) Microsoft's market percentage would disappear into a rounding error.