In spite of the growing popularity and widespread use of new technological devices such as tablets and smartphones, the end of the PC era hasn’t come yet, at least says recent research conducted by Gartner, a top information technology research and advisory firm based in Connecticut, U.S.
Gartner’s research director Ranjit Atwal says global market for personal computers will be revived this year.
"After declining 9.5 percent in 2013, the global PC market (desk-based, notebook and premium ultramobile) is on pace to contract only 2.9 percent in 2014,” Atwal says in a statement.
Collective shipments of PCs, ultramobiles, mobile phones and tablets worldwide are seen to grow this year to 2.4 billion items, which is an increase of 4.2 percent from 2013.
Atwal also says the downward trend of PCs will lessen, specifically in Western Europe, because of business upgrades coming from Microsoft Windows XP and overall business replacement sequence.
"This year, we anticipate nearly 60 million professional PC replacements in mature markets,” notes Atwal.
The market for traditional PC—desktops and notebooks—is going to face the similar downward drift and is to shrink from 6.7 percent this year to 5.3 percent next year. Meanwhile, the PC market is set to only go down by 2.9 percent in 2014 as opposed to 2013.
Tablet sales, says Gartner, is expected to slow down this year, with about 256 million units, yet still seen as a growth of 23.9 percent from last year’s. Reason for this are the higher demand for tablets with larger screens against those with smaller screens and the shift of demand to phablets in the Southeast Asia.
"The next wave of adoption will be driven by lower price points rather than superior functionality," Atwal points out.
This year, mobile phone trades are seen to grow 1.9 billion units, which is an increase of 3.1 percent from sales in 2013. Smartphone sales are expected to sell well just the same this year. The research and advisory firm estimated that 88 percent of mobile phone purchases in 2018 will come from smartphones, as opposed to 66 percent this year.
iOS and Android lead the market for operating systems in 2014, with an increase of 15 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
"We expect the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 6 will attract pent-up demand for users who want a larger screen," Annette Zimmermann, also a research director at Gartner, says in a statement.
Windows phones are still kicking its way into the market, exhibiting a strong development from 4 percent this year to 10 percent by 2018.
The current forecast of Gartner mirrors in what market analysts and merchants have gotten the impression of during the first six months of 2014. For instance, Intel officials reveal they saw the PC business starting to stabilize again following years of decline.
