PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
If you told a month ago that Google would open its first High Street store, popular PC brand Lenovo will have arguably its worst PR disaster and Jon Atherton was going to leave Entatech, I would have dismissed you as stark raving bonkers.
But the tech industry continues to surprise – and change – faster than a rig running a couple of newly announced Titan X GPUs.
Covering it all on www.pcr-online.biz is exciting, whether it’s that revised MacBook, new PCR Rising Stars event or a fresh (but familiar) face like Dave Stevinson’s as part of a new appointment, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a challenge. But the channel is vast and change is a part of it.
Just when the encouraging desktop market looked like it was picking up, Intel cut $1 billion from its Q1 2015 revenue forecast, due to “lower than expected” demand for business desktop PCs and inventory levels across the PC supply chain. This comes after the chip maker enjoyed a record year in 2014 (helping Intel pick up the Grand Prix PCR Award). But it wasn’t long ago when the desktop market took a bit of a nosedive, so you could argue resellers are better prepared for another potential dip.
Plus, another big change – one that will perhaps affect your business more directly – is now just a matter of months away. Microsoft will end support for Windows Server 2003 on July 14th, meaning no more security updates for your customers, regardless of version. We take a look at what this means for the market and some of the migration options in our latest issue. But again, it comes just one year after the big Windows XP switch-off, putting resellers and IT providers in good stead this time around.
So while change can be drastic, haven’t we all been here before? There may be new products, new faces and new challenges, but the industry is certainly cyclical and situations are similar. What’s important is how you face any new challenges and adapt to change.
Hopefully our latest issue will give you a good indication of some of those key developments so you can prepare. After all, who knows what lies ahead?
Check out the April 2015 issue of PCR here.
Dominic Sacco, PCR editor
