You only need to click once, fool: Gaming rig sales up as Trump presses continue on trade tariff tussle Shipments of gaming rigs staged something of a comeback in the second quarter of 2019 as retailers sought to avoid potential trade tariffs on machines bought in China and imported to the US. Globally, desktops, notebooks and monitors sales-in to channels leapt 16.5 per cent year-on-year to 10.4 million units, albeit against an …
That assumes that he cares about the long-term effect on the US economy.
If in doubt about someone, assume their actions are entirely selfish and malicious, and then extrapolate the likely result and see if it matches reality. Similarly, assume they are trying their best and extrapolate.
When one matches the reality, you have a pretty good idea of what's actually happening and what that kind of person cares about.
He couldn't care less what the effect is on his own economy. He's used the common right wing tactic of stating the opposite of what is true, and as usual it's being lapped up by everyone who votes that way.
He's using tariffs in the same way he's using a fence on the southern border. To get votes for his re-election from xenophobes.
The fact that all tariffs on goods are paid for by American consumers isn't a concern for him. He has his supporters thinking that he's got one over on "Johnny Foreigner". They certainly won't let something as inconvenient as facts or the truth get in the way of the believe that he knows what he's doing. Even when it affects the cans used to make the beer they ask other people to hold.
Did they factor in the fact that current hardware is used for much longer these days ? My current rig was last updated in 2015, and I have no urge or need to update it now. Laptops are a different story, they cannot be upgraded in any meaningful way aside, perhaps, memory, but they can last a good many years as well, especially the more powerful ones.
I doubt that a change in chip availability has that much of an impact.
Is this really Trump and the trade tariffs?
- There's an oversupply of memory/flash at present due to new processes with more layers/higher capacities
- 2019 was expected to be an above average year due to end of life of Windows 7
- AMD's competitiveness means that Intel have dropped prices on older (and faster) CPU's. AMD Zen CPU prices in Q2 were ridiculously good compared to what had been on offer for the previous 18 months.
Only one of those was really expected (the Win7 EoL) and given the steady decline in PC sales, I would have thought that these changes (including tariffs) would have compressed likely 2019 spend rather than significantly boosted the overall 2019 spend. While it may have dragged some 2020 spend forward, 2020 will be a dramatic slump with or without tariffs.
And as for the 2023 numbers, I think IDC are dreaming...
HAHAHAHAHAH.
NOPE.
Notebooks may even come close in performance, but at several times the price, with several times stricter thermals. Nobody beats a bang-per-buck humongous air-cooled gaming rig, or the extreme performance in watercooled, overclocked rigs. All the new tech usually comes performance-oriented, and later then they become power-oriented, or thermal-oriented enough to be crammed into notebooks or phones with reasonable battery lives and cold enough thermals to avoid 2nd-degree burns.
Thin-light notebooks that can play games at 4k and 144Hz with RTX 2080 Ti's inside... with power bricks larger than actual bricks, and the ability to melt some surfaces. Hard Pass.
Threaten tariffs so the market buys kit now before the prices go up which makes it look like the market is buoyant.
Then delay tariffs until wholesalers have stocked up for Christmas which keeps the supply level high and consumers can spend in the run-up to Christmas.
Then once tariffs are in place (after domestic electronics firms have had time to adjust their supply chain), people will buy US due to the price differentials on imported kit.
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