The problem is pretty simple: the VAST majority of people really have all the computer they need - probably more than they need. The obsession with bigger, faster, thinner, 24 hr battery, zero noise, zero heat, no fans is a tech enthusiast/tech blogger thing or people in very specialised markets thing not a real world user thing.

What matters now isn't performance, it's price. Even Apple gets this - they're introducing an $800 MSRP MacBook Air targetted at "low end" (by their definition) consumers to be sold in places like WalMart.

The reality is that personal computing has hit a wall. Nothing really new has happened in a LONG time, so it's all chasing specs that have long since passed the needs of any normal person. AI was supposed to change that - Microsoft's push to Copilot PC+ was really just an attempt to ahem "encourage" people to buy new computers and it's mostly flopped terribly. Again, most people don't understand why they should need this.

The industry really needs to go back to the 1980s culture of crazy innovation, except that was driven by there not being ANY consumer tech in the computer markets and so the fiel;d was wide open. Today it's the exact opposite.