PC Sales Will Fall 9.7 Percent in 2013, Firm Says

Worldwide PC sales are now expected to fall almost 10 percent in 2013, as sales in emerging markets start to decline, a financial information firm said Thursday.

Interactive Data Corp. now thinks PC shipments will fall 9.7 percent in 2013. In May, IDC had forecast global PC sales would dip 7.8 percent this year, after falling 4 percent in 2012.

Sales of desktop and laptop computers have tumbled as more users migrate to tablets and other mobile devices.

IDC said sales in emerging markets will decrease at a steeper rate than sales in older markets, reversing a trend from previous years. IDC said sales will continue falling in 2014.

“The days where one can assume tablet disruptions are purely a First World problem are over,” said IDC analyst Jay Chou.

IDC said shipments in emerging markets will fall 10 percent, while they will slide 9 percent in mature markets.

IDC said the sales will recover by a small amount in 2015, because businesses will start buying newer operating systems. It added that system life cycles have gotten much longer over recent years. However, IDC said most sales will be replacements for older products, unless PC makers can develop new and compelling applications. The firm said it believes sales will never return to their peak levels, which ended in 2011.

PC sales peaked at 363 million units in 2011, totaled 349.2 million in 2012, and IDC thinks they will fall to 315.4 million in 2013, and rebound slightly to 319.8 million in 2017.

This article appeared in print in the August 30th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.