PC shipments dropped 6.9 percent last quarter as market suffered its worst year ever

[Shawn Knight]

If there was any lingering doubt that we are now in a post-PC era, the latest figures from Gartner should dispel that notion. PC shipments dropped 6.9 percent during the fourth quarter of 2013 as the market in general suffered its worst year since the birth of the personal computer, the research firm said on Thursday.

Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said that although PC shipments continued to decline in the worldwide market in the fourth quarter, they increasingly believe markets have simply bottomed out as the adjustment to the installed base slows.

What’s more, strong growth in tablets continued to negatively impact PC growth in emerging markets. As such, the first connected device for consumers in these regions is most likely a smartphone and their first computing device is likely a tablet – both of which typically cost less than a traditional PC.

The decline represents the seventh consecutive quarter that shipments have slipped but don’t let the statistics fool you too much as there’s still plenty of money in the PC market. Worldwide PC shipments still totaled 82.6 million during the quarter

Lenovo, HP and Dell were the three largest computer makers during 2013. Lenovo accounted for 18.1 percent market share, HP finished with 16.4 percent and Dell managed to capture 11.8 percent of all systems sold last year. Acer and Asus also finished in the top five at 7.8 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55282-pc-shipments-dropped-69-percent-last-quarter-market-suffered-worst-year-ever.html

 

[treeski]

How are PCs defined in this report?

 

[Guy Gagnon]

Does this account for the sale of individual computer components. Perhaps this article is neglecting the ever increasing knowledge base and do it yourself personal upgrades attitude that alot of PC enthusiasts who have been purchasing PCs for a while have adopted. I can't help but feel as if these figures posted by these PC Titans does not show a complete picture when talking about the "decline" of the PC. There is no way I would want to buy something preassembled anymore. Especially from those companies who keep trying to push their sub-par components at inflated prices. Just thought I'd share my two cents, im certain several people share my views and do not approve of the term "post-PC era".

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

I know it's not relevant, but I ordered a PC for a family member on Nov 29th and it still hasn't shown up. Expected delivery according to Dell is Jan 23rd. So maybe, if Dell wants to ship more PCs they should start with ones people have already ordered!

Or maybe shipments in the 4th quarter were so low because they want to have good 2014 numbers and so all the shipments were pushed off until this year. who knows.

 

[wastedkill]

All I have to say about this article is big woop.... PC gaming is not dying and everyonen needs to learn demand goes up and down all the time if pc shipments dropped 100% then I guess you could call it a small problem.

I dont understand why articles like this are posted they only show that demand doesnt continue to grow unless its oxygen they are selling...

 

[Spykezxp]

Does this account for the sale of individual computer components. Perhaps this article is neglecting the ever increasing knowledge base and do it yourself personal upgrades attitude that alot of PC enthusiasts who have been purchasing PCs for a while have adopted. I can't help but feel as if these figures posted by these PC Titans does not show a complete picture when talking about the "decline" of the PC. There is no way I would want to buy something preassembled anymore. Especially from those companies who keep trying to push their sub-par components at inflated prices. Just thought I'd share my two cents, im certain several people share my views and do not approve of the term "post-PC era".

I agree with you on this one. I haven't purchased a pre-assembled desktop in over 10 years. Everyone that comes to me ask me about desktops or laptops and I help them make a decision on what computer suits them the best. 80% of the time I end up building a desktop for them. The other 20% they end up buying a laptop. I would like to see a report on how many components are being bought over the last couple years to see if that is on an increase. Why would anyone go out and buy a pre-assembled desktop and spend X amount of money, when they could take their older desktop and re-vamp it to work to their needs for less money? Also have to factor in the Economy for many countries is getting worse, not better. So that will have a huge impact on PC sales.

 

[EEatGDL]

Meanwhile we keep building our own rigs not caring about those affected brands.

 

[nigel]

The real cause of this is Microsoft and Windows 8. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in my opinion does not justify a change of my hardware, in fact as I do not have a touch screen, and as Bing has an inability to find the correct things first (is it a Microsoft plan to find the wrong things so they get extra click through revenue?) I will have to wait until they have fixed the menus etc.

I do think the delay in sorting this out could be a dramtic push to people to purchase tablets

 

[johnehoffman]

The largest cause of decline in PC sales is likely that many who used to use PCs for email and web surfing now use tablets and phones instead. However, I suspect that those who are gaming or using computers for business or creative work are still doing so because tablets and phones are difficult to use for such purposes. The PC sales volume will likely never return to what it was, but the good news is that it is probably the low end PC market that has been most affected.
I suspect PCs will continue to be sold unless and until there is a more efficient input method than the keyboard and mouse. Even then, we may see the PC and tablet markets merge with more powerful tablets to which one can attach quality keyboards, mice, and external monitors, I.e., laptops with detachable keyboards. Surface, though kludgy and expensive, may be the vision of what will become much more useful devices.

 

[Guest]

Seventh consecutive quarter of decreasing PC sales
just about how long Windows 8 has been pushed down customers throats

 

[veLa]

How are PCs defined in this report?

Good question. Besides laptops, I custom build all of my machines, so I doubt those computers are factored in to this measurement.

 

[Guest17]

As others are correctly noting, the foundation of the PC's failure is and continues to be laid by Microsoft and its disgustingly abhorrent Windows 8 OS. What's even worse is that Microsoft's hubris, its inability to accept it mistake as a failure, will continue to drag the venerable PC through the gutter. Despite what many tech pundits proclaim and despite the proliferation of tech peripherals like tablets, the desktop PC will remain the cornerstone of productive computing.

 

[pmcardle]

As soon as I read the heading I thought to myself, can't wait to hear what the MS Windows 8 crybabies are going to say.

"The real cause of this is Microsoft and Windows 8"
"Seventh consecutive quarter of decreasing PC sales, just about how long Windows 8 has been pushed down customers throats"
"the foundation of the PC's failure is and continues to be laid by Microsoft "

Yup, I was right. Whaaaaaa
Are you serious. You folks need to get out more often. You haven't heard that PC are competing with tables (which quite few have W8 on them). Oh, btw, if you're smart, W8 works exactly like W7 with several efficiency enhancements. It then has all the bells and whistles of modern apps if you care to use them. IMO - Anyone who stays with W7 should have their heads examine!

 

[Raoul Duke]

Of all my computers, only the first one was a prebuilt one. I think a major reason PC sales are down is that the power of several years old gear is still very close to the new. Why should I update my i7-2600K overclocked build (circa 2011) when it is still plenty powerful? Just replaced the SSD, if any AMD video cards ever appear in stock anywhere I might go for that, but overall no need to upgrade.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Don't get me wrong, if Windows 8 floats your boat, turns your crank, spanks your monkey, tosses your salad, gives you a woodie, makes you drool or whatever else, buy it and use it. It is your money after all.
But for those of us who have chosen Windows 7 STFU about how great Win 8 is.

 

[Raoul Duke]

(n)(y)
don't mean to offend, having a rough day
Fixing someone else's computer!
and this was my break....sob

 

[Guest]

No surprise here. Blame the stinking vomit that is Windows 8.

 

[Guest]

That's normal ! I don't have a reason to buy a new one anymore, there is enough computing power in it as it is, why should I buy a new one instead of spending my $$ on red wine?

 

[Blue Falcon]

Desktops: Software is so far behind due to the long shelf-life of PS360 consoles that if you have a Core i7 920/860 @ 3.9-4.0ghz, unless you have GTX780 SLI or faster, the performance increase in games will be marginal by moving to i7 4770K overclocked. Even a stock 1st generation i5/i7 is more than sufficient for office work, e-mails, facebook, youtube, etc. Those consumers are not going to go out and buy a new PC for this basic work. For the rest of us PC gamers, we don't buy pre-assembled systems.

Next, laptops. People are starting to realize that it's better to spend a little more and get a light laptop, with high build quality, awesome screen, good trackpad, SSD, strong battery life and one that manages to have a good resale value after 2-3 years --> Apple. While PC shipments declined last quarter, Apple managed to ship 28.5% more units in the US.
http://www.techpowerup.com/196707/gartner-says-pc-shipments-down-6-9-percent-in-q4-2013.html

How is that possible? Their products are more appealing as people are getting tired of buying cheap $500-600 laptops that become slow in 5 months.

Then there are younger and older generations. My parents have a 6 year old laptop and instead of getting a new laptop, they went out and bought the latest iPad. It's perfect for them when they travel, or perform basic things at home. My dad uses a workstation at work, which means he doesn't need a powerful laptop at home. Younger kids run around and for them a lighter device is far preferable. Again, tablet wins over laptops for them. I've seen many girls carry from the ages of 16-23 carry tablets in their bags with them. It's a lot harder to fit a laptop in there....

Also, if one already has a modern laptop with an Ivy Bridge CPU, 8-12GB of RAM, 1080P screen, drop an SSD in there and you don't need to buy a new system for 3-4 years. PCs are now very fast for basic work that unless you are rendering, video encoding or running games, laptops last longer than ever.

 

[Railman]

Are you serious. You folks need to get out more often. You haven't heard that PC are competing with tables (which quite few have W8 on them). Oh, btw, if you're smart, W8 works exactly like W7 with several efficiency enhancements. It then has all the bells and whistles of modern apps if you care to use them. IMO - Anyone who stays with W7 should have their heads examine!

My daughters laptop has W7. I cannot see any logical reason to install W8 on it. Why not? Well the cost of buying W8, time spent reinstalling all the programs and the distinct possibility that the W8 drivers will not work with the laptop. Frankly I would need to have my head examined!

 

[Railman]

How are PCs defined in this report?

I don't think they include self build PC. I also wondered if they included sales of bare bones systems or boutique suppliers.

There is no mention of Chromebooks. If they are included in PC sales then W8 must be doing worse than the figures suggest.

 

[pmcardle]

Are you serious. You folks need to get out more often. You haven't heard that PC are competing with tables (which quite few have W8 on them). Oh, btw, if you're smart, W8 works exactly like W7 with several efficiency enhancements. It then has all the bells and whistles of modern apps if you care to use them. IMO - Anyone who stays with W7 should have their heads examine!

My daughters laptop has W7. I cannot see any logical reason to install W8 on it. Why not? Well the cost of buying W8, time spent reinstalling all the programs and the distinct possibility that the W8 drivers will not work with the laptop. Frankly I would need to have my head examined!

Point well taken, let me re-phase; anyone who would not buy a PC just because is has W8 or buy a new PC today with W7 should have their head examined.

 

[Railman]

Are you serious. You folks need to get out more often. You haven't heard that PC are competing with tables (which quite few have W8 on them). Oh, btw, if you're smart, W8 works exactly like W7 with several efficiency enhancements. It then has all the bells and whistles of modern apps if you care to use them. IMO - Anyone who stays with W7 should have their heads examine!

My daughters laptop has W7. I cannot see any logical reason to install W8 on it. Why not? Well the cost of buying W8, time spent reinstalling all the programs and the distinct possibility that the W8 drivers will not work with the laptop. Frankly I would need to have my head examined!

Point well taken, let me re-phase; anyone who would not buy a PC just because is has W8 or buy a new PC today with W7 should have their head examined.

So my IT department should have their heads examined as they only buy laptops with W7 installed? I am sure they see things differently.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Point well taken, let me re-phase; anyone who would not buy a PC just because is has W8 or buy a new PC today with W7 should have their head examined.

Why should I have my head examined because I choose to use Windows 7. I choose Windows 7 because of two features that are not available in Windows 8. You should have your head examined, for thinking I need my head examined over such a ridiculous claim.

 

[pmcardle]

Are you serious. You folks need to get out more often. You haven't heard that PC are competing with tables (which quite few have W8 on them). Oh, btw, if you're smart, W8 works exactly like W7 with several efficiency enhancements. It then has all the bells and whistles of modern apps if you care to use them. IMO - Anyone who stays with W7 should have their heads examine!

My daughters laptop has W7. I cannot see any logical reason to install W8 on it. Why not? Well the cost of buying W8, time spent reinstalling all the programs and the distinct possibility that the W8 drivers will not work with the laptop. Frankly I would need to have my head examined!

Point well taken, let me re-phase; anyone who would not buy a PC just because is has W8 or buy a new PC today with W7 should have their head examined.

So my IT department should have their heads examined as they only buy laptops with W7 installed? I am sure they see things differently.

You missed the point of the article - PC sales. The W8 crybabies were claiming it was sorely because of W8. If you buy a PC with W7 it counts towards total "PC" sales. I'm sure there are good reasons for businesses to stay with W7 as it's been tested and secured, but for the average home user to keep crying about W8 and how it's the sole reason for low PC sales just shows people's intelligences (or lack of). Reason for my rant...