Declining PC Sales - A factor of the economy, shifting demand, or both?

Fading sales

PC shipments: 257 million units expected in 2009, down 11.9 percent

Previous biggest drop: 3.2 percent in 2001, after dot-com crash

Semiconductor sales: Dropped in January to $15.3 billion, down 28.6 percent year over year and 11.9 percent from December

Mobile phone sales: Dropped in fourth quarter, but rose overall in 2008

Source: Gartner and Semiconductor Industry Association

These stats give you an idea why Intel is currently in the process of massive layoffs, and major players in the industry including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Dell all saw steep declines in stock prices. This downturn will affect emerging markets, where technology companies live on the edge to survive. Without the growth in emerging markets we may be looking at slowed R&D for these companies, meaning slower technical advancements, meaning less fun for consumers and less growth for businesses alike. BAD!

Although, once again, this industry is probably just acting as a microcosm of the entire economy right now, so it's tough to say if the downturn is a sign of permanent market shift away from the PC model, or is just going through the trough of a regular cyclical model. Another theory to explain it off is that people are holding on to their current hardware longer because electronics are being considered "luxury" items and are probably taking a backseat to slightly more important things like food and shelter (damn you, stomach! I don't need you anyway).

Check out the full picture at this San Francisco Chronicle article.

Word of the Day!

in⋅cre⋅du⋅li⋅ty [in-kri-doo-li-tee, -dyoo-]
–noun
The quality or state of being incredulous; inability or unwillingness to believe.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME incredulite < L incrēdulitās. See incredulous, -ity

Synonyms:
disbelief, skepticism, doubt.

Antonyms:
faith.

Beard, Beard, Beard.

While talking about growing my "proposal beard" for the current stretch we are in at work, my buddy showed me this video which goes a little further to dissect the power of the beard:



Since I definitely want to rehearse my battle with the universe (you'd be foolish not to), I'll keep my beard until the bitter end of this proposal submission!

University Degrees - Do they still hold the same value?

This topic stems from an article written on Cbc.ca by Heather Mallick discussing the validity of a university degree. She's basically arguing that because everyone nowadays is walking around with a degree and employers are seeing it as a "first-step" it is just a tax-saving money sink for the institutions and governments involved, with relatively little benefit to the student. Essentially, she believes universities should go back to only providing education to the top tier students who show considerable aptitude, instead of accepting students with lower standards and dragging them along for at least for years while the student doesn't even know what he/she wants to do.

I'll start by saying that without trying to be elitist, I do agree with some of the basic points put forward by Mallick. First of all, we all know there is a significant percentage of people in university who just shouldn't be - usually with the help of parental coercion. Stuff like, "you have to do it", "you won't get a job otherwise" or "I saved for years to get you in" are common things to hear. So, trimming out the people who don't want to in the first place would be a good step. That bumps up the value of a degree a little bit.

Secondly, I think many universities DO currently accept people with lower than acceptable marks. I seriously think that if you aren't trying in high school, chances are you're not going to magically turn it around in university. It's a waste of time for all parties involved, and if you do scrape through, congrats, you've just devalued your degree for everyone else. You've probably found the "academic system" itself to be boring, and there are many other things that could make you just as much money that you would be much more interested in: specialized trades, armed forces, peripheral professional services, colleges, sports, music, film, writing, etc, etc, etc.

But, one thing I will argue with is the value of the experience. Over a 4 year period in university, you learn a lot about yourself in a lot of different ways. No matter what, you're probably going to grow in a bunch of different ways, and in ways you'd never expect. This is one of the greatest values of a degree - it has personal meaning and it's a salute to yourself that you've achieved growth. So basically, even if its extrinsic value is declining because everyone is getting one and it's seen as a necessity in most of today's job market, it still has intrinsic value and provides confidence for people moving forward in life.

So in the end, although a lot of deserving people are having to go further academically to differentiate themselves from the pack, making university degrees generally achievable is probably a boost to the morale of people as a whole. And I'm all for that.