Classic IBM PC 5150 in trendy beige.
Desktop and laptop PC sales continued their downward trend in 2013. Not quite a landslide, but close. Posting a 10% drop over the previous years, PC manufacturers are feeling the winter chill of a doomed industry.
Is this too dramatic? ICD’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker seems to think that this scenario could be an overly dramatic viewpoint. Their researchers feel that the market may have bottomed out and that growth will resume. Perhaps. What is sure is that the Chinese market will continue to post increased PC sales.
IDC showed that 2013 was indeed a bad, bad year for PC sales.
But as for the big consumer countries such as the US or Europe the outlook is probably gloomier. In particular leader HP had an especially bad year contracting 12.3% year on year. In fact only Lenovo could pop champagne corks. The company lead in total worldwide shipments with particularly strong growth in EMEA, Japan and Latin America.
Besides the use of PCs and laptops within the work environment it is really the home market that will be impacted the most. As home users move to mobile gadgets or the use of their large TVs for internet purposes the home PC will surely disappear slowly but surely.
Anybody serving the computer market in whatever way will need to note this change in consumer preference. Whether you are developing websites for businesses or developing operating systems for computers such as Microsoft this trend needs to be noted.
Already Windows 8.x is struggling to find purchase in the market. It had hoped the updated operating system by Microsoft might create some buzz around the PC sales market. But not to be. And it isn’t necessarily Microsoft’s fault either.
The landscape of personal computing is changing. And it’s about time. The grey box is surely making its way out of the backdoor. What will take its place? Tablets and smart phones are stepping into the scene. But perhaps there is space for an even more innovative solution? It’s certainly there for the taking.
