October 6, 03

"The longer a PC runs, the costlier it gets", says a report by Gartner Dataquest, which could be water on the mills of the world's PC suppliers who see in despair that desktop PCs have by now reached a level of development in terms of speed, functions and capacity beyond for reasonable office use, and thus demand for replacements tdecline.

Extending the lifecycle of enterprise desktop PCs from the typical three years to four or even more years may actually add to the machines' total cost of ownership (TCO) rather than cutting it, the research firm said. Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner, said it is not only better to develop an understanding of desktop PC TCOs, but also a more refined sense of those factors not quantifiable as part of hardware ownership costs, as well as what part of the enterprise pays those costs. Extending the tree-year lifecycle will experience more PC downtime, slow operation and increased need for software support versus newer PCs. " Longer lifecycle PCs don't show a huge jump in hardware breakdown," Silver said, "but as users keep PCs longer, they put more material on them creating more likely sources for conflict, more need for support. It is hypothetical to an old car, it runs slower, burns more gas, parts getting short in supply and breakdowns occur in the middle of nowhere." Silver recommended adding longer PC retention possibilities into enterprise hardware investment calculations, including OS migration costs, increased level of service and other factors beyond the initial depreciation period in case economic conditions require keeping existing PCs in place longer than planned. Cost factors cut the other way as well, Gartner said. "If an end-user can find real business benefit in having a faster or newer PC, enterprises should quantify those benefits and build a business case to reduce the lifecycle to three years.