After good relatively results last quarter, the numbers have turned ugly again for the personal computer industry with both IDC and Gartner estimating the sector’s sales have collapsed by 11% and 9.5% respectively.
Of the PC manufacturers Taiwan’s Acer is the hardest hit with Gartner forecasting a 20% drop and IDC a whopping one-quarter compared to last year.
Apple were the only bright spot with Gartner expecting the company to sell 16% more PCs than the previous year.
Lenovo remain the biggest global supplier of personal computers but the company suffered a six percent drop.
While it appears the end of Windows XP support gave the sector a reprieve last year, the end of the PC era is well and truly here. The key aim now for vendors is to find a way to shore up their margins as the market shrinks – it’s a bad time to be commodity player.
Dear Paul,
at least for the moment, the era of PC hype seesm to be over . . .
however, PC stil seel,, and more importantly, are still hevily used!
How many PCs do you have?
What did you sue to write your article with?
We still use PCs, and for a long time we will continue to use PCs as there is no alternative for at least part of the professional tasks we have to fullfill.
Furthermore, there is a move to more high-end portables . . .
So no panic, PCs will continue to be sold, but more similar to cars and, if you like, bread . . .
BR,
Cees Lanting
Sen Mkt Mgr
CSEM (CH)