Comment by blisterpeanuts | Hacker News Reader

Comment by blisterpeanuts | Hacker News Reader

PC sales dropping? Dell talking about going private? HP losing money? Tough. Let them try harder to win business. Here are a few suggestions.

1. Eliminate the Windows tax. From now on, vendors should offer bare systems that can run Windows and/or some flavor of Linux, Chrome OS and maybe even Android. Give me a radio button for each, so that I can watch the price change as I toggle. Enough with the "comes with Windows 8, but we won't tell you how much that costs."

2. Offer multiple years warranty. A car typically is 3 years or 36,000 miles. So why can't a PC be guaranteed for 3 years or 10,000 operational hours? I've seen so many components fail after 91 days, and then we're into a painful customer assistance process with some guy in Bangalore reading scripts in some dialect that sounds like English.

3. By the way, offer real customer service, not some guy in Bangalore reading scripts in some dialect that sounds like English.

4. Work harder to shield the user from malware: build more security into the hardware, e.g. trusted certificates and low level trusted, signed checking of application binaries.

5. Touch screens.

6. Get more creative with the form factor. Mac Mini is a good example of an elegant, efficient unit that doesn't look and sound like an air conditioner sitting under your desk, yet is packed with useful ports and computing power.

7. Tout your products as the mother ship for mobile devices. Provide tablet connectivity and drivers out of the box, and include bluetooth rather than making me order a $10 dongle online just to have this basic feature.

Just some ideas; anyone got anything else?

None of that will help.

1. People don't want barebones systems - they want a fully working computer they turn on and use. People who want a barebones system do it themself, and are not a large market.

2. That just increases costs, and will not increase sales. You want it, obviously. But it won't help the seller.

3. Same as #2 - that doesn't increase sales, and does increase costs.

4. Good luck with that. Microsoft is trying that with secure boot (with hardware support), and people are screaming about it.

5. Gorilla Arm. Assuming you are talking about a PC, it's not practical to use a vertical touch screen.

6. A good suggestion. Market computers the way kitchen appliances are marketed: By how they look, with some discussion of functionality, but looks are paramount.

7. It's nice I guess, but I'm not sure it'll help all that much.

Ars - re #1, I am not saying make Grandma install Win/Lin/*os, but rather make it an option during the buying process.

I'm pricing new cars right now and the makers are doing these interactive build-your-car websites where you select every single accessory and option and watch the price go up or down accordingly. Admittedly, Dell has had such a service for years, but preinstalled Windows is usually non-negotiable. Just automate the OS install process (if it isn't already) and let the user shave the $80 off the price if he prefers a free OS rather than a paid OS.

It actually is an option from most sellers, it's just not really promoted, but if you look you can find it.

If it was easier to find people would remove windows thinking "why do I need this" - and then call tech support when the computer doesn't work.

A single tech support call eats all the profits of the sale.

2. There's a big market of people that actually have to get work done, from freelancers of all kinds to big businesses, people that get drowned into a sea of crapware and consumer-related nonsense.

This market is seriously under-served and unappreciated. And in fact it's why Windows 8 will be seen as Microsoft's biggest disaster.

4. I agree and in fact it's why I think today's walled gardens will fail, while the PC will prevail, just like in the console wars of a couple of years ago.

I still don't really why nobody else has tried to compete with the Mac Mini. Dell had their Zino, but it looks like they've since discontinued it. I would love to have a Mac Mini sitting on my desk running Linux, but I can't justify spending $600+ for it. Some other PC manufacturer needs to finally step up to the damn plate.

Check out the Intel "Next Unit of Computing" http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-...

Oh wow, this is awesome. Thank you.

Intel has made a tepid offering with their Next Unit of Computing. But it is only being sold as a bare bones kit and you will easily exceed the price point of a Mac Mini once your start adding the components to it.

Good ideas. I am a Windows user but I fully agree with #1. No reason to assume that everyone wants Windows.

Of your ideas, I like #6 the most. People decry the death of the desktop PC, but for years now I have been of the opinion that none of the PC manufacturers are trying to do anything interesting on the desktop. Hence, no one feels any incentive to upgrade.

My highest-ranked idea for breathing life into the desktop PC is ultra high-definition very-large displays. Everything else falls into place from there. Ultra high-definition requires new GPU technology, potentially higher storage capacity, higher bandwidth, etc.

I've written about that here: http://tiamat.tsotech.com/displays-are-the-key

re 1: free windows for personal use? the OS market is more competitive now, that should have an effect on price

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