You can’t have missed the news today from Gartner and IDC who both recorded yet another fall in PC shipments in the latest quarter. Another 11% decline and the fifth quarterly decline in a row. Indeed, globally the decline in Europe was the worst – down 16.8%.
But analysts are still suggesting that this is due to a further delay in the PC refresh cycle – anticipating an uplift when support for XP ends next year.
Of course, the move to tablets and, to an extent, smartphones, is cited as the reason. When I acquired my first iPad three years back, it was my notebook/mini laptop that became redundant. But I still retained my PC for important stuff (like writing this post and doing the accounts) The two key reasons were that I really need a keyboard and access to Microsoft Office. Yesterday we visited HP for our regular update and Nick Wilson showed us his HP Slate with keyboard running W8 and Office. He said it was now his main (not sure if he said ‘only’) computing device. It was very convincing!
Now if serious enterprise people can get all their computing in a package like this it doesn’t bode well for the anticipated PC replacement cycle! It also doesn’t bode well for Apple. Microsoft has steadfastly declined to make Office available on the iPad.
Maybe we really are seeing the end of the PC era