14 DAY TRIAL // I keep mentioning how the PC market is steadily declining in terms of sales and consumers, but even as I do that, I hope that soon it will no longer be true. Sadly, that wish of mine won't be fulfilled today.
All because the International Data Corporation (IDC) has finally tallied the results of its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker for the first quarter of this year, 2014.
And what it found wasn't exactly good for the PC market and, by extension, companies that sell PCs and PC components.
Long story short, PC sales dropped 4.4% compared to the first quarter of 2013 (January-March). Not the 5.3% decline that was expected, but still a pretty big percentage.
No wonder that Intel is shutting down its Costa Rica facility and firing 1,500 people. At this rate, Acer and ASUS might not have a choice but to merge, even though that rumor is old and forgotten at this point.
Anyway, total PC shipments were of 73.4 million in the January-March period for this year. The reason that things didn't go as badly as it was feared was the increased demand from mature commercial markets. Also, lower tablet demand meant less market share stolen from notebooks.