I read things sometimes that give me cause to question the credibility of some of the printed media journalist types. Take the following article that I found on Yahoo! News, the title is, PCs losing their relevance in Japan. It starts with some typically sensationalistic preamble:

TOKYO – Masaya Igarashi wants $200 headphones for his new iPod Touch, and he’s torn between Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 game consoles. When he has saved up again, he plans to splurge on a digital camera or flat-screen TV.

Okay so far, but then look at the tripe that spills forth from Ms. Tabuchi’s keyboard, this is where I smell a rat:

The PC’s role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-size computers, advanced Internet-connected game consoles, digital video recorders with terabytes of memory.

I think the problem for personal computer manufacturers has more to do with the fact that gaming consoles have become so much more powerful and are now capable of performing many of the more basic computer tasks. People are switching to consoles for their gaming needs rather than turning on PCs, but they are still using PCs for a lot of things. The article goes on to add that young Igarashi feels that he doesn’t need to buy a computer because the one that he has now is three years old and is good enough. I would say that the young man in question is probably living at home with his parents, or living in a dormitory supported by his parents. He spends his disposable income on stuff that he wants but doesn’t need and has his computer paid for by his parents. If he is studying something like engineering, he will move into a company that supplies him with a computer and probably won’t ever find the need to buy one unless he needs one and does not have someone else to supply it to him.

I would like to know where Ms. Tabuchi finds these digital video recorders with “terabytes” of memory. Were they to be available they would be a lot more expensive than a pair of $200 headphones.

I will spare Ms. Tabuchi further Fisking while I explain the gist of what she is trying to get at. Personal computer sales are falling in Japan. It is being blamed on things like flat panel PC purchases and the growing powers of cell phones and even gaming consoles. I would say that these things have made an impact on falling sales, but they are overlooking a few things here that definitely deserve mention.

A PC is a major purchase and while the mean price of a PC has fallen considerably from the good old days, a decent PC will set you back at least as much as a respectable flat panel TV. If you go over to the brand name systems from the likes of Sony and Hitachi a good PC is actually more expensive. Add a monitor to the mix and you are probably paying about 50% more for a PC than you would for a good television. The brand name PC makers have priced themselves out of relevance. Certainly, no other household appliance that is worth over $1,000 needs replacing after three years.

The PC industry enjoyed a boom time when Moore’s law was in full effect, but now it is isn’t and people are finding that a PC which was reasonably powerful three years ago still cuts the mustard today. It might not crank out the latest 3D games and it might not be enough to cover Crysis, but it is good enough for most day-to-day tasks. Consoles take care of the gaming and for the most part, email is now handled by cell phones. Are PCs less relevant? No, but they are less of a priority. Wait until a bunch of new motherboard types comes out or a new graphics board interface that necessitates a ground up purchase and we will see more PC sales. It will never be the boom time for big makers that it once was, because white box manufacturers now give them too much competition for the gamers dollar and cheaper brand names, like Dell for example, hammer the last nails in the overpriced manufacturers’ PCs.  PCs aren’t losing relevance in Japan or anywhere else.  Buyers are just becoming a little more cautious in their upgrades.

Source: Yahoo! News

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