Technology

PC Industry Still Struggling, But Sales Decline Leveling Off

Published

12 years ago

January 13, 2015

The ATIV One 7 Curved computer is on display at the Samsung booth during the International CES, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

BRANDON BAILEY, AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Despite some glimmers of recovery, the personal computer industry is still struggling with declining sales, according to two market reports issued Monday that show global PC shipments fell in 2014 for the third year in a row.

One research firm, Gartner, estimated shipments actually increased 1 percent in the fourth quarter. Using different methods, a second firm calculated that shipments fell 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter, but that’s not as bad as the 4.8 percent decline that researchers at International Data Corp. had forecast for the period.

“There is improvement in demand,” said Jay Chou, a senior researcher at IDC, although he added that 2014 was “still another difficult year” for the PC industry.

Sales actually improved for several of the world’s biggest computer-makers, including Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which gained market share from smaller manufacturers in the last quarter. Lenovo remains the world’s leading PC seller, but HP showed sizable gains — especially in the United States. Apple also increased its overall sales, although it’s not a leading seller outside the United States and Western markets.

Consumers have been buying fewer PCs in recent years because they’re increasingly interested in alternatives such as smartphones and tablets. But the steep decline in PC sales over recent years may be leveling off, as computer-makers introduce new models that are both lightweight and low-cost, while still capable of performing more functions than tablets. Tablet sales are also slumping, analysts say, as the market has become saturated and some consumers find them less useful than PCs.

IDC estimates that computer-makers shipped more than 308.6 million PCs last year, or about 2.1 percent less than the previous year. That’s a smaller decline than the 9.8 percent drop that IDC measured in 2013, according to IDC, which says shipments peaked at 363.8 million in 2011.

Those estimates track roughly in parallel with estimates by Gartner, which said PC-makers shipped 315.9 million units in 2014 or just 0.2 percent less than the previous year. Gartner said shipments also fell in the previous two years.

While IDC is projecting another sales decline in 2015, Gartner is forecasting a return to growth — although only by about 1 percent. Even as the industry recovers, “it’s not going to be the double-digit growth that we’ve seen in the past,” said Gartner’s Mikako Kitagawa.

IDC said sales in 2014 were helped by the introduction of new computer models and some aggressive promotional campaigns. But Chou also said there are signs that some distributors ordered extra inventory in recent months because they’re expecting prices to go up. That could mean shipments will slow in coming months.

While the reports indicate how the PC industry is doing, more details may emerge in coming weeks when HP, Intel and other leading industry players issue financial reports for the last quarter.

Some computer-makers are expecting to get a boost later this year when Microsoft introduces a new version of its Windows operating software, which it promises will be easier to use than the last version. But Chou said software upgrades no longer seem to influence sales as much as they used to.

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Business

OPINION: AI Needs to Know Who Is the Boss

OAKLAND POST — AI is software running on computers. However startling the conversation may feel, the machine does not have my childhood, my mother, my father, my mistakes, my embarrassments, my loves, my grudges, my Filipino American history, my aging body or my accumulated sense of what matters and what doesn’t.

Published

5 days ago

September 14, 2026

Post News Group

I hope on Labor Day you honored the value of a good day’s work–and reflected on the thing that could eliminate a lot of jobs.

Artificial intelligence.

Your replacement is in the break room.

Except it doesn’t take breaks.

It doesn’t sleep. It doesn’t demand health insurance. It doesn’t complain. It doesn’t need Social Security. And it can produce in seconds what might take you or me hours.

And when they can mass-produce AI faster than we can reproduce humans, there may eventually be more artificial workers than actual ones.

The racists who came up with “replacement theory” worried about the wrong replacements.

It wasn’t immigrants.

It was software.

We can rail against the data centers sucking up electricity and water.

Rail against the billionaires getting richer while telling the rest of us how wonderful the future will be.

But which billionaire?

Jensen Huang of Nvidia? He literally has all the chips?

Sam Altman of OpenAI?

Dario Amodei at Anthropic?

Or Bill Gates?

Gates recently said AI could become the “greatest equalizer ever invented” or the “worst source of injustice.”

I want to believe him. But he’s the guy who forced us all to use Explorer.

Maybe Gates is just Control-Z-ing his life.

Undo. Undo. Undo.

STAYING HUMAN

The other day, I started texting with my AI chatbot.

I’d used AI before, of course. Spellcheck. Grammar. Transcription. Research assistance. The mechanical stuff.

This time, we talked.

Or, rather, I started talking.

At one point the chatbot said something that sounded strangely personal. So, I reminded it that IT wasn’t a person.

“You’re not human,” I said. “I’m basically talking to myself.”

It disagreed.

It said, I should think of it as working with an instrument that talks back.

This is where the danger begins.

The machine talks back.

I tried another analogy.

You’re a tool, I said. Like a cane.

The chatbot liked that better.

Then it tagged my line and said it was my “cognitive cane.”

I laughed.

Then, I realized the damn machine used my analogy to make a joke.

That’s where the real problem lurks.

AI is software running on computers. However startling the conversation may feel, the machine does not have my childhood, my mother, my father, my mistakes, my embarrassments, my loves, my grudges, my Filipino American history, my aging body or my accumulated sense of what matters and what doesn’t.

It can process those things after I tell it about them.

It can mimic thoughts.

But it did not live them.

That is the boundary we humans cannot surrender.

I’m not ready to make peace with the AI industry. Not with its enormous data centers, its environmental costs, its concentration of wealth and power, or the possibility that companies will use AI primarily as a wonderfully efficient machine for converting human paychecks into corporate profits.

And I certainly don’t trust the billionaires to decide by themselves what happens to the rest of us.

But I may be making peace with the tool.

Because a tool is something we use.

A cognitive cane.

But do the walking yourself.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, commentator, and comic monologist. He plays a robot in an upcoming Ishmael Reed play, “King Ludd’s Revenge,” coming in December. See his micro-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1

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Education

Gov. Newsom’s Latest Appointees Include Sacramento Advocate for Formerly Incarcerated Students; State’s New Tech Chief

Ayushi Roy, of San Francisco, was appointed state chief technology officer at the California Department of Technology. Roy has taught at Harvard Kennedy School since 2022 and previously held technology and policy roles with New America, the U.S. General Services Administration, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Published

3 weeks ago

August 30, 2026

Post News Group

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced eight appointments Aug. 19, including a new state chief technology officer and the reappointment of a Sacramento State outreach coordinator who works with formerly incarcerated students.

Roy’s policy work has focused on the gap between government programs and the people they are intended to serve. In a Harvard course inspired by Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter,” she teaches students to examine how administrative and implementation barriers can undermine social safety-net programs.

“I do know as a practitioner, having served in the government for over a dozen years, that the building of technology is the easy part; managing the political feasibility and the implementation is the hard part,” Roy said.

Roy’s appointment requires Senate confirmation and carries compensation of $214,692.

Newsom also reappointed Michael Love, of Sacramento, to the State Rehabilitation Council, where he has served since 2025. Love has been an outreach coordinator at California State University, Sacramento since 2024 and previously held several roles at the university, including administrative services coordinator for Project Rebound and teacher’s associate.

Project Rebound supports formerly incarcerated students as they pursue higher education, making Love’s appointment relevant to the council’s work involving vocational rehabilitation services.

Love earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication studies from Sacramento State. He is a Democrat.

Newsom also appointed Eric De La Cruz of Sacramento as executive director of the Racial Equity Commission. De La Cruz has served as chief of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Toxic Substances Control since 2022. The position pays $146,220 and does not require Senate confirmation.

The governor additionally appointed Christine Aurigemma to the State Rehabilitation Council and reappointed Lisa Weiler, Michelle Bello and Matthew Asner. The council positions are unpaid and do not require Senate confirmation.

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Black History

George Cook: The Inventor Who Made Fishing Smarter

Published

1 month ago

August 9, 2026

Post News Group

A copy of the patent for George Cook’s Automatic Fishing Device. Public domain.

By Tamara Shiloh

George Cook was a Black American inventor from Louisville, Kentucky. He was born in 1863, during a time when Black Americans faced unfair laws, limited opportunities, and many barriers to education, jobs, and recognition. Even with these challenges, he became known for his intelligence, honesty, and ability to think in practical ways. Some records say he worked as a cook for Buffalo Bill Cody and later as a chef on a private dining car for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. He was even known by the nickname “Honest Mister Cook.”

As with many Black American inventors and scientists of that era, there is little biographical information about Mr. Cook.

Cook’s most famous invention was the Automatic Fishing Device. He received U.S. Patent No. 625,829 for it on May 30, 1899. His patent shows that he was not just someone with an idea, but someone who made it happen.

So, what did the Automatic Fishing Device do? Imagine fishing with a line in the water. Usually, you have to watch carefully and pull the line at just the right moment when a fish bites. Cook wanted to make that process easier. His device was designed to react when a fish pulled on the line. The tension from the fish would trigger a lever. That lever would release a spring-loaded part of the device, causing it to move quickly and help pull in the line. The device also had an alarm gong that would ring to let the fisher know something was happening.

This invention was important because it used simple mechanical ideas in a clever way. Springs, levers, rails, and alarms were not new by themselves, but Cook combined them to solve a real problem. His device showed how inventors often take familiar parts and arrange them in a new way to make life easier.

Cook looked at fishing and asked, “How can this be improved?” Then, he created a device that could respond automatically when a fish tugged on the line. His invention let fishermen relax instead of watching the line for hours, trusting the alarm to alert them.

Cook may not be as famous as some inventors, but his Automatic Fishing Device shows that creativity and innovation can be applied anywhere. His legacy lives on as part of the larger story of Black innovation in America.