Comeau: The 'Toasterization' of the PC continues

This year, we’ve seen a constant stream of data supporting the notion that the personal computer business isn’t what it used to be. Despite the release of Windows 8 in October 2012, industry sales have been quite slow relative to 2009’s Windows 7.

This week, web analyst company StatCounter released Internet traffic share numbers.

Windows 8 currently drives 4.3% of web traffic. At the equivalent point in its own lifetime, Windows 7 was pushing 13.5%!

So why isn’t anyone buying new computers?

It’s simple. Value shifted from the PC itself to what the PC can access: Social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and content distribution services like Netflix and Spotify.

There are equivalents in the corporate world. Many companies now use cloud-based offerings like Google Apps and Salesforce.com to run their businesses.

Unfortunately, this trend, which I call “Toasterization,” is a detriment to any company trying to actually make money selling traditional PCs.