PC's worst yearly decline in sales

Ivan Nikkhoo, managing editor of Siemer and Associates, talks to CNN about the downturn in PC sales.

全球个人电脑PC市场监测机构IDC和Gartner发布了最新统计数据。两家数据均显示今年一季度全球PC销量出现了超过10%的负增长。而根据IDC的数据，今年一季度全球PC市场更是创下近20年来的最大下滑。 这再次证明，PC的时代正在逝去，计算机行业正在向平板电脑和智能手机等移动设备发展。

PC丧钟已敲响！世界前五大PC厂商除联想勉强维持在零增长外，惠普、戴尔、Acer、华硕等均出现了大幅下跌——PC真的要死去了吗？

I’m joined by Ivan Nicoon who runs a venture capital(风险资本) firm that deals in particularly with technology companies. Great to have you on Quest Means Business, Ivan.

Thanks for having me.

One of the interesting things that we’ve seen, obviously as we move from these great, big, gargantuan(巨大的、庞大的) computers to very mobile(可移动的；机动的) devices, is a whole side industry of applications. That’s why people like you come in.

Well, if you look at the context of it, there are three big developments.

Number one, more and more people like to consume data on apps, not only in a mobile way, but in a personalizing curator way. In other words, I wanna consume what I want, the data on the apps, where I am, when I am and specific to me.

And number two, the erosion of pricing on the tablets means that it is more and more affordable for larger masses to get it.

And number three, and probably the most important. Now you have the universal applications that are available for mobile devices at a point where it is a critical mass and everybody uses them. The developer communities really provide applications for the mobile devices in a way that is absolutely usable for not only consumers but enterprise as well.

So this one operating system that everybody can use and different companies can code towards, if you like.

Well, there is more than one obviously. The two dominant ones being Android and of course, Apple’s. But the implications are probably somewhat more important and it’s reflected by the valuations of companies that you see in the market.

First and foremost, I don’t believe that this is a stand-alone trend, I think the trends will continue and the erosion of the price of the tablets will apply more and more pressure on the PC manufacturer. So I think we’re gonna see that’s gonna hurt more and more in absence of the strategy to provide something in the mobile sector.

The other one is the opportunities in the mobile sector are absolutely enormous. If you look at the valuation of companies that are providing for the mobile industry, whether it’s mobile advertising, you get mobile monetization(铸币；货币化) of video or anything else that goes with it, versus the same companies that do on the online business, the evaluation parameters are absolutely different.

Yes, and there’s tons of those companies. Ever so(非常) briefly, do you think we’re gonaa see the death of the PC by the end of, say, this decade? I mean, the death bell’s been ringing for some time.

You know, I doubt that very much. Because the enterprise is very used to using the same model for some time to come, and do you remember, we’ve been talking about the death of PC for a very long time. I doubt that very much. I think the usage of it will differ. I think the type of PCs we will use will differ and they will become somewhat more application-centric for what we want. They have to be significantly more agile(敏捷的；灵巧的). But no.

Ok, Ivan Nicoon, thank you very much for coming on Quest Means Business this evening.

It’s a pleasure. Thank you.