Doug Olenick On Nov 19 2012 - 1:00am

Low-Priced Computers Continue To Dominate

EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. – Shoppers are not being swayed by the hype surrounding Ultrabooks and allin- one PCs, but are sticking with low-priced laptops and desktops.

Also causing sales problems for these high-end systems are the public’s infatuation with tablets and smartphones.

IHS iSuppli reported that only 6 percent of computer sales took place in the premium, $1,000 or higher, price band in 2012.

“Ultrabooks and other ultra-thin computers have yet to make a dent on the market, and PCs as a whole have been sidelined by enormously popular devices such as tablets, like Apple’s iPad, and also by smartphones with near-PC-like functionalities,” said Peter Lin, computer platforms senior analyst at IHS.

Mainstream and value-priced laptops and desktops evenly split the rest of the market with each garnering a 46.9 percent share.

IHS defines a value-priced device at less than $500 and one that uses older technology. Mainstream products are above this price threshold and are equipped with up-to-date technology, but not the highest performing. Premium is more than $1,000 and has the best technology and performance available.

IHS analysts said the domination of lower-performing products is due, in part, to the fact that these still deliver considerable performance for a good price.

The ability to deliver higher and higher performance will increase going forward as computers with more powerful processors flood the market. IHS is forecasting that quad-core processors will be found in 179 million, or 59 percent, of all notebooks by 2016.

By that year all computers should be running a 64-bit operating system, finally pushing out the old 32-bit models.

Microsoft announced it is stopping support for Windows XP, a primary 32-bit OS, forcing millions of owners to upgrade.