PC market could see a mini revival this year: Gartner

With the increasing adoption of tablets and large-screen smartphones, it’s no secret that the PC market has taken a beating in the recent years. In 2013, the market saw a decrease in PC shipments resulting in a global decline of 9.5 percent, for which, tablets displacing PCs was a key cause. In fact, even back-to-school sales experienced its lowest PC volume since 2008 due to a greater availability of inexpensive Android tablets that attracted first-time consumers in emerging markets, and as supplementary devices in mature markets. However, if we go by the recent Gartner report, the PC market might see a revival this year thanks to business upgrades from the Windows XP operating system and the general business replacement cycle.  The surge is likely to be fuelled by the sales of ultra-portables and other premium PCs, though the traditional PC market including desktops and notebooks are likely to follow the same downward trend. As with any devices, adoption goes through phases from the early to the late adopter. Tablets are currently moving onto the latter part of that curve in mature markets. Gartner estimates that sales of tablets will see a relative slowdown in 2014 to reach 256 million units, an increase of 23.9 percent from 2013. Lower demand from users for tablets with smaller screens, some in favor of larger screens, in mature markets, and the shift towards phablets in South East Asia are slowing global tablet penetration. According to Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, “2014 will be marked by a relative revival of the global PC market”. The research and advisory campany also estimates to sell nearly 2.4 billion units this year – a 4.2 percent increase since 2013.