Gartner: PC shipments have worst yearly decline, ever

According to research firm Gartner, the PC industry had its worst ever yearly decline in 2013.

For the fourth quarter, shipments were down 6.9 percent year-over-year to 82.6 million units. For the year, shipments totaled 315.9 million units, a full 10 percent decline from 2012. The overall units shipped were equal to 2009's level.

Lenovo and Dell saw growth but the rest of the market saw declines, including major players HP, Acer and Asus.

The Chinese giant now has an 18.1 percent share of the market, followed by HP at 16.4 percent and Dell at 11.8 percent. Lenovo overtook HP for the crown early last year.

In the U.S. market, Apple saw the largest growth, moving to 13.7 percent share (up 28 percent YoY), but globally they are little more than a blip.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Jan 2014 22:10

cart0181

By "PC" they mean Desktop form-factor computers. I'm sure the ~~Laptop and~~ Tablet markets are doing quite well.

edit: added strikethrough. I missed the fine print. Looks like laptops are included after all.

10.1.2014 01:48 #1

SomeBozo

I kind of waited for this for a few years, got the idea back in 2005/6 or so. Mainly because some friend and I were thinking of going to a movie, instead of going back to the computer room to search for movies, a friend pulled out his phone and searched for movies. I said then i thought then how much the world would start moving away from "PCs", most people only need to send e-mail, text or call someone on the phone... I'm getting more to the ponit unless you're an IT professional you don't need a PC, and that could be solved by having a VM on a server machine and you only have a keyboard and monitor to connect to it...

10.1.2014 02:19 #2

dEwMe

You know. Not to beat a dead horse but I blame this squarely on Windows 8. I honestly think once they have the next great operating system (hopefully Win9) I think things will turn around. Also there really isn't much need for a new system with a lot of horsepower. It seem most 4 year old or older PCs run all those web based games and facebook just fine. For your average person that's good enough. Why should they need a new PC? Once there are reasons and a need I think it's gonna pick up quite a bit. Most people I know are reluctantly upgrading only when their old system fails. Even then I suggest they grab a decent used system off CowBoom.com that will take Win7.

Just my $0.02,

dEwMe

10.1.2014 09:20 #3

lamain

Another thing I have noticed is that games have stopped moving up in graphics for some time now. It was not a complete stop but for the most part a game purchased last year vs 4 years ago had about the same graphics. I blame this on more and more games being cross platform and the consoles being stuck in the past. This should change a little with the new systems but as they are already low end compared to a top end computer I expect we will run into a wall very soon.

10.1.2014 12:06 #4

Interestx

Originally posted by dEwMe: You know. Not to beat a dead horse but I blame this squarely on Windows 8.

I don't think so.
I'd say it's the rise of the tablet as much as anything & no OS is going to effect that undeniable change plus....

Originally posted by dEwMe: Also there really isn't much need for a new system with a lot of horsepower. This more than anything.

I have a Q6700 rig with an Nvidia 480GTX, 8gb of RAM & a ton of storage.
I updated the PSU to a 750w one a couple of years back & installed USB3 outlets & a couple of eSATA connections.

I have looked at updating but that is all it would be, the truth is besides a slightly lower power consumption and some faster data transfer speeds there's really no incentive to move on.

I switched last time because my previous rig could only barely run good HD encodes (and took a lot of persuading to do it too) but even here if 4k is supposed to be the big draw for the next round of updating I'm not so sure most will be that fussed over good 1080p.

10.1.2014 12:28 #5

DarkJello

Any numbers on home built PCs? I'm sure it's not very significant but I'd be interested to know.

10.1.2014 16:46 #6

SomeBozo

Originally posted by dEwMe: You know. Not to beat a dead horse but I blame this squarely on Windows 8. I honestly think once they have the next great operating system (hopefully Win9) I think things will turn around. Also there really isn't much need for a new system with a lot of horsepower. It seem most 4 year old or older PCs run all those web based games and facebook just fine. For your average person that's good enough. Why should they need a new PC? Once there are reasons and a need I think it's gonna pick up quite a bit. Most people I know are reluctantly upgrading only when their old system fails. Even then I suggest they grab a decent used system off CowBoom.com that will take Win7.
I don't think so, I believe the example i give in my reply before you is the driving factor. What i mean is the era of the PC is and will be on a decline for some time. Mainly because if people wanted to get connected 10 years ago, a PC/Mac/Linux box would have been the only way, now with the smartphone, and various mobile devices the desktop/laptops are not as practical and central to everyone connecting these days. Would you rather carry around a smartphone in your pocket or a much larger laptop? I think the point of convenience is obvious, and if my smartphone does all one needs then i'm simply wasting money on a PC that will only pick up dust.

On the other hand, as much as i hate win8 myself, MS is in a rock and a hard spot i would say. M$'s #1 problem as we sit today going into the future, they have to do something to remain relevant. Thus their feeble attempt and continuing push to get their phone to be successful, the change of the OS in order to be more mobile device friendly.

I could go on and on why i see the end of the PC dominated world is going away, not completely but definitely knocked down a few slots. Just as mainframe use to dominate the computer world, at least when i started out, they are still needed but aren't the sole/main player in the computer world anymore. Many of today's PC have surpassed and filled the role(s) which mainframes use to do. Win8 and the PC dominated world is still relevant but won't be dominate as I see it. Besides IT workers, hard core gamers like myself will always want and use a PC of gaming over consoles and what not...

10.1.2014 17:16 #7

GryphB

Go back to selling them with windows 7 installed and I'd buy one as well as my bro would too.

I bought a PC back in Oct with windows 8 on it. It's still in the box unopened. It'll stay that way for a while; maybe another year or 2.

10.1.2014 22:31 #8

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