The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Discuss anything related to audio or music production.
Angstrom
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The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by Angstrom » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:43 pm

My ISP installer dude came around to fit a new modem, and he told me 60% of houses now don't have any sort of computer. No desktop, no laptop. 4 years ago he said they all had hulking desktops which cost thousands of pounds, and just served as Facebook terminals, these days they just use their phones.

Now that the average cut price smartphone has 25 times the power of an 80's supercomputer most punters have given up on owning a computer just to check their tweets.

I wonder how niche the desktop/laptop will become. We (content creators) currently benefit from economies of scale on our tech, but if in future only one in a 100,000 people own a computer I can see the price becoming prohibitive. I can see a case where creator-consumers are forced to buy the Apple-Logic box, or the AbletonPush, or the NIMaschine. Which becomes a single purpose hardware DSP product which is tied to software, like a giant dongle/interface.

The end of an era?

Tarekith
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by Tarekith » Sun Mar 23, 2014 6:40 pm

Given how much more creative and forward-thinking the iOS music apps have become compared to the stuff being released for desktop/laptop counterparts, fine by me :)
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re:dream
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by re:dream » Sun Mar 23, 2014 7:09 pm

Angstrom wrote:My ISP installer dude came around to fit a new modem, and he told me 60% of houses now don't have any sort of computer. No desktop, no laptop. 4 years ago he said they all had hulking desktops which cost thousands of pounds, and just served as Facebook terminals, these days they just use their phones.

Now that the average cut price smartphone has 25 times the power of an 80's supercomputer most punters have given up on owning a computer just to check their tweets.

I wonder how niche the desktop/laptop will become. We (content creators) currently benefit from economies of scale on our tech, but if in future only one in a 100,000 people own a computer I can see the price becoming prohibitive. I can see a case where creator-consumers are forced to buy the Apple-Logic box, or the AbletonPush, or the NIMaschine. Which becomes a single purpose hardware DSP product which is tied to software, like a giant dongle/interface.

The end of an era?
There were 26 million households in the UK in 2013. If 60% of them don't have personal computers installed, that means 40% do. That's a market of ten and a half million households. That's not a niche market by any stretch of the imagination.

infernal.machine
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by infernal.machine » Sun Mar 23, 2014 7:18 pm

I don't know if ISP installer dudes are reputable peer-reviewed sources... but now that you've posted about it on the internet it MUST be true!! :lol:

However, this internet source tells a different story:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-te ... s-map.html

Samuel L. Jizzle
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by Samuel L. Jizzle » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:06 pm

Once the iPad music making apps level up, would we really still need computers?

Angstrom
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by Angstrom » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:27 pm

The Finn wrote:
There were 26 million households in the UK in 2013. If 60% of them don't have personal computers installed, that means 40% do. That's a market of ten and a half million households. That's not a niche market by any stretch of the imagination.

well, you say that ... but then take a look at this graph.
Image

Surely that's proof of my theory.
It's hard to argue with solid facts like that graph.

LoopStationZebra
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by LoopStationZebra » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:28 pm

NONE OF THIS IS NEWS.

FFS.


:x
I came for the :lol:
But stayed for the :x

Angstrom
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by Angstrom » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:35 pm

YOU CAME HERE FOR NEWS?

THINGS ARE MUCH WORSE THAN I THOUGHT

:|


doghouse
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by doghouse » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:16 pm

The important piece that is missing is storage.

My iPod, my camera, my synths, etc. all rely on my PC and multiple hard drives for long term data storage. If you have only a tablet and/or a phone you are relying on the cloud instead.

I'm not quite ready to rely 100% on cloud storage, guess I've been working in the computer and networking business for too long to trust it. But that is the way things are heading and quickly, too.

I suspect the iMac I bought last year will be my last desktop machine ever.

tedlogan
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by tedlogan » Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:25 pm

I dread the price of the AutodeskBox; the MayaBox.


sporkles
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by sporkles » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:04 am

I think this is just a matter of definition, really. Is there not a "computer" in the iPad, the Galaxy Tab, the iPhone? I agree and have seen myself that a lot of people are perfectly content with the awkward pinchzoompan and added time spent on a small phone screen where a traditional keyboard and mouse would get the job done a lot faster, but there are certain tasks that can't be performed satisfactorily on a smartphone in a bus seat. What will continue to change, is how we interface with our devices. Just because we eventually do away with the mouse and the physical keyboard doesn't mean we do away with the computer.

Samuel L. Jizzle
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Re: The Personal computer, becoming a niche item

Post by Samuel L. Jizzle » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:12 am

sporkles wrote:I think this is just a matter of definition, really. Is there not a "computer" in the iPad, the Galaxy Tab, the iPhone? I agree and have seen myself that a lot of people are perfectly content with the awkward pinchzoompan and added time spent on a small phone screen where a traditional keyboard and mouse would get the job done a lot faster, but there are certain tasks that can't be performed satisfactorily on a smartphone in a bus seat. What will continue to change, is how we interface with our devices. Just because we eventually do away with the mouse and the physical keyboard doesn't mean we do away with the computer.
There's also computer, and even—if you subscribe to behaviourism—a mind, in Coca Cola vending machines.


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