It seems PCs would require more time before being displaced by tablets.
The outlook for the PC market worldwide, which has been on a steady decline for the past few years, is mounting a small comeback in 2014.
According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), PC shipments around the world are expected to decrease by 3.7 percent for the year. While that seems bleak, it's actually not as bad as previously thought. IDC's previous forecast was a six percent decline.
The surge has been attributed to stronger demand and renewed interest from consumers in what IDC characterizes as "mature" regions, which includes markets such the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada. IDC estimates that PC shipments in the following territories would grow by as much as 5.6 percent this year. The growth rate is the highest since 2010, and is said to be due to growth from both consumer and commercial segments. For the short term, the rebound in PC sales is said to be primarily due to business spending in mature regions.
However, IDC also pointed out a number of contributing factors. PC sales is said to be partly driven by the end of support for Windows XP, which gave users reason to purchase new computers. However, this factor is only temporary, and will be reduced over time as the number of Windows XP holdovers shrink. Also, tablets are becoming less of a threat to PCs since the trend is shifting towards smaller devices. Lastly, IDC pointed to the growth of Chromebooks as partly responsible for the PCs resurgence. Computers based on Google's Chrome operating system is said to be driving sales in the education segment of mature markets.
"Direct competition from tablets seems to be waning," Loren Loverde, Vice President of Worldwide PC Trackers, said in a press release. "However, PC replacement cycles have expanded as users have alternative computing platforms and places to spend money. The launch of Windows 9 Threshold in 2015 could potentially boost demand, although it will be hard to gauge the actual impact until the advantages to consumers and commercial users in functionality and integration with specific devices is more apparent. For the moment, we continue to see PC demand coming primarily from replacements with overall shipments declining slightly through the end of the forecast."
The outlook for PC sales in emerging markets is not as positive. IDC slightly lowered its forecasts for the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, Central Europe and Africa because competition from tablets and other devices remains strong.
