Computers
Are PCs Really Dead?
Over the past several months I’ve seen a number of headlines both at online business sites and in forums announcing the “death of PCs” and the meteoric rise of tablets and mobile smart phones. Some of these “death notices” have come from self-proclaimed marketing gurus “that we all know and love” (of course, not to name anyone in particular).
The gist of the announcements was that smart Internet marketers should forget the declining PC users and migrate to marketing specifically to owners of mobile smart phones, tablets and other portable devices. This is where the fast action and the new money is!
I wanted to know if this advice had any merit or if it was just an “attention grabbing” ploy by those selling marketing products aimed at the mobile/tablet market. Sure, there is no doubt, I reasoned, that the new devices would cut into the market share of PCs and MACs – it happens when most new technologies are introduced. They are going to have an impact on the current market share of existing equipment.
What I found was interesting.
My quick and feeble research suggests:
-There is no question that in the U.S. mobile and tablet shares of the total Internet page views is rising. To me, that certainly makes sense as a new medium comes online. Every new device that competes with the PC is going to gain some share of the market, especially with its emerging newness and “WOW” factor. Every new bit of market share is going to decrease the overall share of the PC.
-Depending upon which study you read, the figures I saw suggest that tablets account for about 4% of all page views, phones about 8-9%, and PCs roughly 87%. Certainly those percentages of market share will change over time.
-Of course, smart marketers will want to make their content and offers available and readable on all the different devices that are cost effective to do so. Who wants to miss sales? In addition, it makes sense to have web sites that are mobile responsive. It’s a no-brainer, right?
But to me, here’s the bottom line: Don’t listen to those who are saying that PCs are dead! You’ll be throwing away a huge chunk of all page views as you chase after the 13% using mobiles.
For those who track where your page views come from, I’d be interested in knowing if these numbers hold fairly true in your own experience (of course, the actual numbers are bound to vary somewhat within markets).
No doubt this trend toward portable device use will increase. There are going to be more and more phones and tablets used in place of desktop computers. They are convenient, mobile, and quickly up and running whenever you’re away from home.
Computing in the future will continue to evolve. Who knows how long smart phones will last until another even smarter technology will find it’s way into the mainstream?
Prepare to accept and embrace the new mobile devises … but don’t believe anything or anyone that suggests you abandon catering to the desktop users at this point in time. That would be a huge mistake right now.
To your online business success!
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com