Report: PC Shipments Will Drop 1.3% in 2013
Even growth in emerging markets in slowing down for desktops.
The International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker reports that PC shipments in 2013 are expected to decline 1.3-percent. The forecast is based on poor holiday sales, an "underwhelming" reception to Microsoft's new Windows 8 platform, and a continuing economic "malaise" that further crimped IT budgets in the second half of 2012.
Taking that one step further, the report claims that PC shipments dropped 8.3-percent in 4Q12 compared to 4Q11, the most "substantial" decline recorded for a holiday quarter. Even emerging market growth potential is declining, slowing down to the same speed of growth seen in mature regions.
"2012 marked the first year that emerging markets have seen a volume decline, and while 2013 will return to growth, it is projected at less than 1-percent and with modest, single-digit growth through 2017," the report states. "For mature regions, 2013 will mark the third consecutive year of volume declines. IDC continues to expect limited growth in 2014 and 2015 with contracting volume in later years."
According to a provided chart, 148.4 million desktop PCs shipped worldwide in 2012, 95 million of which were in emerging markets and 53.4 million in mature markets. In 2013, the total number of worldwide shipments are expected to be 142.1 million, spanning 91.6 million units in emerging markets and 50.4 million units in mature markets. By 2017, only 141 million desktop PCs are expected to ship worldwide that year.
"The PC market is still looking for updated models to gain traction and demonstrate sufficient appeal to drive growth in a very competitive market," said Loren Loverde, Program Vice President, Worldwide PC Trackers at IDC. "Growth in emerging regions has slowed considerably, and we continue to see constrained PC demand as buyers favor other devices for their mobility and convenience features. We still don't see tablets (with limited local storage, file system, lesser focus on traditional productivity, etc.) as functional competitors to PCs – but they are winning consumer dollars with mobility and consumer appeal nevertheless."
Portable PCs, like laptops and Ultrabooks, are expected to gain traction in emerging markets within the next several years. In 2012, 110.9 units were sold, and IDC expects to see 115.5 units sold in 2013 and 148 million units in 2017. In mature markets, the numbers seemingly stay flat, with 91.1 million units in 2012, and an expected 88.3 million units in 2013 and 93 million units in 2017.
For more information about IDC's new report, head here.
This, but also the fact that a lot of people do not do work that requires the processing power of a good PC. For most people, a laptop that is similarly priced to a PC looks more attractive since its mobile and can be taken on the go.
This, but also the fact that a lot of people do not do work that requires the processing power of a good PC. For most people, a laptop that is similarly priced to a PC looks more attractive since its mobile and can be taken on the go.
Play games on consoles,
Do their work on laptops due to the portability it offers.
If you want to sell more PC's, find smart ways to make smooth transitions between the two where the PC genuinely offers benefits, or find a way to sell PC's to people in a way that they need to put in as little effort as possible. The consumer is lazy, and all the other solutions are the best options for them. Turbo dock by AMD seems to be the way to go about it, offer people improved performance through 'docking' to a proper desktop.
(have been building my own PC's ever since)
I did bought my ONLY Notebook close to 3 years ago, and I see no reason to buy another Notebook
any time soon. I just needed something on the go while still resembling an actual PC.
(mission accomplished)
I built a NEW PC every 5 years or so, while in between "keep it up" with some upgrades in between.
Id it wasn't because I like to "keep up", probably I wouldn't "need" to build a new PC that often at all.
Even when I do like to play games.
Besides tablets the other reason for PC slowdown is bad economy and also because the next generation of consoles has not been released. Game developers prefer to make games so they work on all major platforms so they don't have to design multiple different versions of their games because that's easier and cheaper. This means the hardware requirements for PC games is very low because they are also very low for consoles now since the consoles are now so old. So no need really for PC gamers to upgrade their hardware. Game makers can't be bothered to make a special higher tech version of games for PC because they can't make much money there because of piracy being so much easier to do on PC making games sell several times more on consoles than PC.
I dont really agree with your statement on piracy because steam and origin pretty much eliminate that as an alternative. I dont think i have bought one game that was a physical media disk sense warcraft battle chest .. and to be honest that was just spur of the moment purchase. i have over 100 titles and i have bought them all either on steam or origin or amazon.. so its pretty mute arguement. at least on my end. lol as for pc sales .. i would say its more then likely a combination of lack of innovation and or lack of disposeable funding needed to purchase a computer and or need. especially when the majority still either has pentium 4 or core duo processors people who are educated tend to build there own computers knowing you get a better deal and often time better warranties from manufactures and with tools and reviews from sites like this makes it a much more intelegent purchase desion. so reports like this should be taken with a grain of salt . there are no reliable metrics for the build your own market. unless you go off of sheer parts / componets sold by manufactuers
I believe I was basing my game sales figures on VGChartz but maybe that site excludes Internet download sales and only includes retail sales.
My wife has a Nexus 7 & I'm very jealous that she can take it pretty much anywhere & browse the web for the entire day without needing to charge it again, some of the games are even half decent, although most are pretty crappy "free" (demo type) games.
I can imagine in the next 10 years current gen desktop hardware could be standard in tablets (well, I hope)