Windows 10 hasn't proven to be the PC industry's knight in shining armor... at least, not yet. According to a report from research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), computer shipments fell 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, resulting in the steepest year-over-year decline in history.
Rival firm Gartner reports slightly better figures with a drop of just 8.3 percent. For the year, IDC estimates shipments declined by 10.4 percent while Gartner reports an eight percent drop. In real-world terms, it means that fewer than 300 million PCs shipped during 2015.
The PC industry had a number of factors going against it in 2015 including continued competition from tablets and large-screen smartphones, longer upgrade cycles, weak international currencies and surprisingly enough, even the launch of Windows 10 (due to its free upgrade model which encouraged existing PC owners to keep their machines around for longer rather than buy something new).
Looking ahead, 2016 is expected to be a little better to vendors. Aging PCs will eventually need to be upgraded, as will those PCs that didn't upgrade to Windows 10 yet. Attractive pricing and new products (like the Oculus Rift, which requires a moderately powerful computer to run) will also help drive sales, as will a larger commercial adoption of Windows 10.
Image courtesy Dylan Tweney, VentureBeat
https://www.techspot.com/news/63461-pc-shipments-2015-declined-largest-margin-history.html