Gartner says PC shipments under threat

Anthony Caruana
Monday, 29 November 2010 21:32

Your IT - Mobility

A report by research analysts Gartner has downgraded the forecast of worldwide PC shipment growth 17.9% to 14.3%. That drop comes from an estimate made just a couple of months ago indicating that PC sales are suffering from the onslaught of alternate computing platforms and a lack of innovation. 

2011 worldwide PC shipments are forecast to reach 409 million units, a 15.9 percent increase from 2010. This is down from Gartner's earlier estimate of 18.1 percent growth for 2011.

Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner say that 'These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer demand, due in no small part to growing user interest in media tablets such as the iPad. Over the longer term, media tablets are expected to displace around 10 percent of PC units by 2014.'

'PC market growth will be impacted by devices that enable better on-the-go content consumption such as media tablets and next-generation smartphones,' said Raphael Vasquez, research analyst at Gartner. 'These devices will be increasing embraced as complements if not substitutes for PCs where voice and light data consumption are desired. It is likely that desk-based PCs will be adversely impacted over the long-term by the adoption of hosted virtual desktops, which can readily use other devices like thin clients.'

'PCs are still seen as necessities, but the PC industry's inability to significantly innovate and its over-reliance on a business model predicated on driving volume through price declines are finally impacting the industry's ability to induce new replacement cycles,' said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

Gartner's analysts suggests that there are five dynamics challenging the PC industry.