this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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I think we might be seeing the end of consumer desktop computers coming to pass. The market will split into phones and tablet, which most people use for most things traditionally a computer would be used for. Laptops are widely used for more work like stuff. Thin clients connecting to virtual desktops is already the norm in a lot of companies. Desktop computers might go back to where they were in the 80s and early 90s, very expensive high end prosumer equipment. Only for real enthusiasts, who see it as a hobby and want to invest heavily, or professionals that need the local compute power of a workstation. The computer industry was already in big trouble just before covid, then we suddenly all needed work from home setups or spent more time at home so wanted a new better computer, which caused the industry to pick back up. This AI bubble might just kill it finally, with prices skyrocketing, people will be hesitant to buy new hardware for a while.
It won't be the end. The bubble will burst, likely violently after being pushed far too far and for far too long, and when it does, the manufacturers will need clientele again. We'll likely see yet another greed-fuelled standardised increase in base prices due components but it won't be the end of the customisable desktop. At the very least, I absolutely won't be buying a tablet. No corpo can force me to do that and I know a lot of people in the space will agree.
Companies who build AI datacenters or NVIDIA are just as "greedy" as the company that sold the other user a 40MB hdd or the company you bought your last piece of equipment from. It's driven by the dynamic of the free market, not by individuals who you could attribute something like greed to.
I'm referring to how there's been a trend of "cost of X just increased 15%". Granted I can't, and won't presume to, speak for every individual case but we have access to know enough that these increases often aren't tied to necessity within a company. When profits are increasing year-over-year but the price still goes up, that's a decision made by a greedy someone(s) somewhere up in the pecking order.
If higher prices wouldn't throttle demand, virtually every company (extremely few "ethical" exceptions) would increase prices. That's how prices are set in the first place: probe what customers are willing to pay. It's the game that's greedy, not the players. Even you and me could become corrupted if we've find ourselves higher up in the pecking order.