Pain for the PC industry continues

The latest PC industry sales estimates show the PC era is well and truly over

the launch of the eeePC netbook computer

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.

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Author: Paul Wallbank

Paul Wallbank is a speaker and writer charting how technology is changing society and business. Paul has four regular technology advice radio programs on ABC, a weekly column on the smartcompany.com.au website and has published seven books.

One thought on “Pain for the PC industry continues”

  1. 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)

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