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PC market on the mend?

October 9, 2014

Market experts have confirmed that the personal computer business is not out of the woods yet. But recent stats showed that sales were picking up again in some regions of the world despite the boom in mobile devices.

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Students using a laptop and a tablet
Image: Fotolia/Syda Productions

Third-quarter PC sales rebounded in the US and western Europe against the backdrop of falling shipments in China, Japan and other Asian nations where people with smartphones and tablets saw little reason to buy laptop and desktop machines.

That contrast became obvious from two separate reports by research firms International Data Corp. (IDC) and Gartner.

IDC estimated worldwide PC sales between July and September totaled 78.5 million units, marking a 2-percent decline from last year. Gartner pegged global shipments at 79.4 million units, a less-than-1-percent drop from 2013.

Mixed picture

The two research groups noted the figures meant global PC sales had decreased for the ninth time in the past 10 quarters, saying the slump had been driven by the growing popularity of tablet computers and smartphones for work and entertainment.

"Nevertheless, consumers' attention is slowly going back to PC purchases," Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in a statement.

Tablets and smartphones trounce PCs

Many clients, including businesses, opted to replace their PCs running on Microsoft's 13-year-old Windows XP operating system, which the company stopped supporting during the spring. According to Gartner, PC sales already picked up tangibly in the US and western Europe, providing signs of a larger recovery of the market segment.

hg/sgb (AP, Reuters)