The Twilight of the PC Era

As I approach my 50’s I reflect back on many of the things I have seen growing up, and as I hear the song Happy Half A Century I realize that many things have come and gone in that time span that have been totally forgotten in the wake of new stuff, but some things just took a permanent hold on our lives. We all know that fads come and go, but what about things that are way beyond just a fad and become a part of our lives due to the impact they have had on us all. Growing up I was always into gadgets and toys and electronics and that is where today’s story has its roots and foundation as I have always been a geek and still love my hobby.

I have seen the world go through a lot of changes, but some of the most strange have to do with the world of electronics and how they have gone through a metamorphosis as the years have rolled by changing our lives in the process and for better or worse changing them forever by way of technology. It started off with radios and TVs that by today’s standard would be beyond a joke as technology in the early 70s was still really in its infancy and although most people at least had a TV and radio not even the really rich had anything better as the standard was just fixed much more than today’s expansive market. As I grew up in the 70s though I saw a lot of things emerge, thinks like BETA and VCR tapes to watch movies, 8-Track tape players, color TVs becoming the new standard and stereo record players replacing the old mono version.

Now electronics by the time the 80s rolled around had taken a huge turn and electronic shops flourished across the land and Radio Shack was a household name to everyone. The land of stereo equipment and the amount of people involved was just overwhelming and on almost every block there was a custom audio shop. Big names like Pacific Stereo, Leo’s stereo, The Federated group and countless others were really everywhere and sales for about 20 years were very solid as this industry just boomed, but like the Boom Boxes they sold as the 90s rolled around this fad had had switched to a slow cruise control and sales started declining rapidly. Even the introduction of CDs and DVD’s only slowed the decline by a marginal amount. This same thing happened to the Musical instrument and equipment market as well and although not hit as hard as the Consumer Electronic market the 90s saw a substantial decrease in sales and the companies that made the equipment and many went to online only sales in an effort to compete and stay afloat.

Why did this happen? Well one of the main reasons is saturation of a market as well as economic growth in the USA. How did economic growth kill an industry you might ask? As more and more people made a better income, more and more began to buy themselves better toys, things like cool electronics of all different types found their way into the living room of millions of people. That is a good thing right? Well, that depends, as what happened as well is that as these people bought these things, less and less people needed them and by the early 90s even the poorest cat around had at least a walkman to rock out to and most everybody had a color TV and a house full of VCRs or BETA players, maybe even a few of the original videos discs that looked like a record, but were really a movie. As this market got over saturated sales began to decline, as hey no one really needed anything new as most people had the basics and were satisfied with what they had. Back then people really only bought new stuff when it broke as nothing new had been introduced to change the market. Stereo’s and TVs once the biggest selling items had their Twilight years in the 80’s and by the 90s not 1, not even 1 of the old school electronics shops survived into the 90’s as a real storefront presence and only Crutchfield survived by becoming an online entity just in time to catch the wave and keep going.

The birth of the home PC brought a whole new era into the electronics industry and in the beginning there were once again many stores selling gear and software to support the new wave of technology and the flood gates were wide open. Just like when stereo equipment was new everybody was selling PCs and whatever stuff went along with them and the industry grew into a super giant. Microsoft once said there dream was that everyone owned a PC, well guess what Bill, just about everybody does. Along with that also comes the downside, since everyone has a computer of one type or another, the need to go out and buy a new one or more stuff for it has dwindled down to a trickle of what it used to be.  Stores have for years been shutting down as we have seen so many fade away as the business enters its twilight years as the industry it once was. Best Buy is one of the sole remaining computer superstores along with Fry’s electronics to remain and Best Buy has just announced that it will be closing. This spells the end of an era that has lasted a good 25 years as most sales are all going online where Amazon and Newegg own that territory with a few others as their competition in the big game.

As a technical journalist for the last 20 years I have had to flow with the changes that have happened along the way always trying to stay just a step ahead of the curve and as the computer industry begins to dim I see myself switching over to Consumer Electronics again, only this time it’s a new mobile world and everything is going that direction. In truth if not for Apple’s big comeback this industry may have had a shorter lifespan as their innovations helped create a spur of new innovations in the PC camp as well sparking the tablet and phone wars, which is the next giant marketplace to emerge. Now with all that said there is a bit of silver lining with the computer industry and that is the fact that as long as companies can make new an innovative products there will always remain a niche market for them, these days molder’s, hard core PC gamers and those who think outside the norm are the last frontier and vestige for sales. I really enjoyed the heyday of the PC era, but its Twilight days are upon us as far as mass international sales go, as everyone I know has a computer of one type or another and unless something dynamically changes they will not be buying a new rig soon as the one they have works perfectly fine for normal home or office work.  The times they are a changing my friends, and all we can do is roll along with them and hope for the best that it can bring. Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and I would love to hear yours in the comments below.