“Blame it on lack of innovation. Blame it on the economy. Blame it on the tablet. Whatever one blames it on, PCs are not doing well. Sales of computers were down in the second quarter and the outlook for the rest of 2012 is gloomy. Even the upcoming release of Microsoft Windows 8 is unlikely to shift the wheezing PC business back into gear,” Peter Suciu reports for Fortune.
“Market research firm IDC reported that PC shipments totaled 86.7 million units last quarter, down 0.1% from the year earlier period. This was far below IDC’s projection of 2.1% growth. Gartner also reported the decline in sales, counting approximately 87.5 million units,” Suciu reports. “‘It certainly seems that the industry as a whole is in a slump,’ said Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS iSuppli. ‘Bottom line is still the economic conditions worldwide.'”
Suciu reports, “Another factor in the slowdown of PC sales is the continued growth of do-more tablet computers and smartphones. Counting tablets as PCs actually causes Apple to dethrone Hewlett-Packard from the top PC vendor spot. Boosted by strong demand for its iPad tablet, Apple was the top PC seller worldwide according to the UK-based Canalys, which counts tablets 7-inches or larger as PCs. During the second quarter of 2012 Apple sold 17 million iPads and 4 million Macs. Still, regardless of which company is considered the top vendor, the fact is that the outlook for the rest of the year is likely slowing demand for traditional PCs… In the meantime, as Apple continues to dominate in the tablet space it could see some growth with its desktops and notebooks. Says Bartels, ‘So far Wintel vendors haven’t come up with an alternative.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Can’t happen soon enough.
When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that’s what you needed on the farms. Cars became more popular as cities rose, and things like power steering and automatic transmission became popular. PCs are going to be like trucks. They are still going to be around. However, only one out of x people will need them. The move will make many PC veterans uneasy because the PC has taken us a long ways. We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it’s uncomfortable. – Steve Jobs, June 1, 2010