General Gaming Article

Razer Teases August 26th Announcement To Prove PC Gaming Isn’t Dead
Dell & Microsoft Gang Up Against Apple’s “Post PC World”
Dell Attacks HP's Commitment To The PC Market

Razer Teases August 26th Announcement To Prove PC Gaming Isn’t Dead

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 04:19 PM PDT

PC Gaming Is Not Dead Readers of Maximum PC probably don't need to be told that PC Gaming isn't dead, however gaming peripheral maker Razer claims they have proof, and it will be revealed on August 26th 2011 at their brand new domain http://www.pcgamingisnotdead.com.

The website is pretty thin on details at this point, so if this turns out to be a massive marketing ploy for a 500 button mouse, you have our apologizes in advance.

The gadget oracles over at Engadget are theorizing that the announcement might be related to the Razer Switchblade, which if you don't recall, is a hybrid gaming netbook that was shown off at CES this year. We're hoping for something slightly more impressive, but if your in despite need of a small form factor MMO gaming rig it might be worth waiting a few days to find out.

Anyone else have any predictions?

Dell & Microsoft Gang Up Against Apple’s “Post PC World”

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 01:48 PM PDT

Hardware Apple CEO Steve Jobs went on the record several years ago describing the modern day desktop as "a truck", suitable for some, but not practical for the mass market. He went on to define the iPad as the first "post PC device", and has trumpeted his tablet and iOS platforms as flagship products for this ideology ever since. Microsoft and its partners have listened to mainstream media run with his comments as gospel ever since, but some have finally had enough.

Microsoft's chief of communications Frank Shaw was the first to kick off the debate, and laid out his feelings quite eloquently in a blog post on Friday, describing why he feels tablets are smartphones are companions, not replacements for a traditional PC.

"I'll be the first to admit that these new "non-PC" objects do a great job at enabling people to communicate and consume in innovative and interesting ways. That's not surprising, because they were expressly designed for that purpose. But even their most ardent admirers will not assert that they are as good as PCs at the first two verbs, create and collaborate. And that's why one should take any reports of the death of the PC with a rather large grain of salt. Because creating and collaborating are two of the most basic human drives, and are central to the idea of the PC. They move our culture, economy and world forward. You see their fingerprints in every laboratory, startup, classroom, and community."

Michael Dell also decided to sound off on the debate, and presented a fairly compelling argument over Google+. He rightly points out that if PC's are in decline, then why is the market continuing to grow?

"This year there will be about 440 million personal computers of all types(laptops, desktops, workstations) and OSs sold according to Gartner. So many more devices including PCs have been sold in the post PC era than whatever came before it. I believe there will be far more PCs and tablets sold in the next 5 years than the prior 10 especially given the growth in rapidly developing nations. You will also see the line between tablets and laptops fade away with many new types of devices. Gartner also estimates that there will be an installed base of 2 billion personal computers in 2014 compared with 1.5 billion now."

What are your thoughts on the whole post PC Market debate? We have a feeling Maximum PC readers might be a bit biased on the issue, but as always we love to hear what you think.

Dell Attacks HP's Commitment To The PC Market

Posted: 21 Aug 2011 12:35 PM PDT

Boxing HP's decision to scrap the first, and perhaps only product resulting from its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm was by far one of the most unexpected news stories we've seen in years. But just when we thought things couldn't get any stranger, HP announced it was shopping for a buyer for their PC division as well, a move that would take the company in a radically different direction going forward. As the number one OEM PC manufacturer in the world this came as a bit of a shock to everyone, that is unless your number two. For Michael Dell the HP announcement represents a huge opportunity to grab market share, and the charismatic CEO wasted little time going after HP over twitter.