Dell admits consumers don't care about AI PCs

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Market, investors, and AI hype

  • Several comments link Dell’s frankness about consumer disinterest in AI to a recent stock drop, seeing it as proof that public companies are pressured to talk up AI regardless of reality.
  • Others argue Dell’s bigger threats are macro issues: tariffs, supply-chain fragility, and AI-driven DRAM/NAND shortages that are spiking component costs.
  • Some think Dell “should have stayed private” to ignore short-term AI fads; others note it’s less beholden than most because of large insider ownership.
  • There’s concern that AI datacenter demand will pull R&D and production away from consumer CPUs/GPUs, worsening prices and stagnating laptops/desktops.

Consumers, “AI PCs,” and NPUs

  • Broad agreement that consumers don’t buy PCs for “AI”; they care about price, performance, battery life, and concrete features.
  • “AI PC” branding is seen as investor-facing, not user-facing. The typical user already accesses ChatGPT via browser/phone and is confused why they need an “AI PC.”
  • NPUs are viewed as opaque, hard to develop for, and mostly unused by real software today; their mention is treated as a red flag for pointless upsell.
  • Many expect AI to stay, but to be rebranded as “advanced search,” “smart editing,” or similar, with the AI hidden under the hood.

Usefulness vs gimmicks: local AI and UX

  • Some see real potential in quiet, local AI: better photo tagging, text recognition, smarter search, good recommendations, noise suppression, etc.
  • Others argue many proposed LLM integrations (e.g., deciding if a half-written YouTube comment is “important”) are classic “solution in search of a problem” cases where simpler logic is better.
  • There’s strong resistance to AI in everyday appliances (laundry, thermostats, ovens) and to nondeterministic systems controlling critical home functions.

Developer perspectives on AI tools

  • Developer sentiment in the thread is mixed: exhaustion with hype and “inevitability” rhetoric, but recognition that AI IDEs are genuinely helpful for boilerplate, tests, and debugging, when used under expert supervision.
  • Fears include losing deep understanding of one’s own code and overreliance on opaque generation. Others counter that these tools are just the latest productivity upgrade.

Dell hardware reactions

  • Some excitement about XPS updates, especially a “MacBook-quality” Linux-capable machine and return to physical keys; others dislike capacitive keys and dedicated Copilot buttons.
  • Business-focused Precisions are recommended as tougher XPS variants, but users complain about heat, poor battery life, bad sleep behavior, and heavy chargers compared to ThinkPads and M-series Macs.