2010 and 2011 PC Shipments Won't Be as High as Expected

It appears that the DRAM and NAND segments aren't the only markets performing less favorably than they'd like, as PC shipments are now also turning out to have been less promising than originally anticipated.

Some time ago, market analyst firm Gartner predicted that PC shipments would grow by 17.9 percent this year, 2010.

Now, it seems that the same firm is not as optimistic as before, as said percentage has now been replaced by a figure of 14.3%.

Likewise, the 18.1% that was given for 2011 has now been replaced by the less exciting 15.9%, though it stands to be noted that there will be growth nonetheless.

Media tablets are believed to be on track to assume a share of about 10% of the total PC shipments by 2014.

“PC market growth will be impacted by devices that enable better on-the-go content consumption such as media tablets and next-generation smartphones,” said Raphael Vasquez, research analyst at Gartner.

Still, as far as the near term goes, Gartner seems to think that consumers and customers from the business sector will refrain from buying new computers.

Reasons for them doing so include the need to rebuild their finances, weaker employment gains and overall uncertain economic outlook.

“These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer demand, due in no small part to growing user interest in media tablets such as the iPad,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

“Over the longer term, media tablets are expected to displace around 10 percent of PC units by 2014,” Atwal added.

“As the PC market slows, vendors that differentiate themselves through services and technology innovation rather than unit volume and price will dictate the future,” said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

“Even then, leading vendors will be challenged to keep PCs from losing the device ‘limelight’ to more innovative products that offer better dedicated compute capabilities,” he explained.