14 DAY TRIAL // Gartner finished its analysis of the current state of the PC market and has reached the conclusion that the future looks bright. After a couple of years when IT players struggled to keep the PC market afloat, the seemingly recovering economy, as well as new CPUs, GPUs and operating systems, have created conditions favorable for a healthy yearly increase.
According to the research firm's forecasts, the worldwide home PC market will grow more than the professional segment, by 29.5 percent compared to 13.1 percent. Combined, worldwide shipments should reach a total of 376.6 million units, which is the equivalent of a 22% increase compared to last year. Conversely, PC spendings should amount to $245.4 billion, 12% higher than in 2009.
Mini notebook sales are expected to jump 30% higher than last year, to 41.8 million instead of 32.1 million. However, the market for such devices is maturing, which means that the share will steadily decline, from the 18.6 projected for this year to 13.9% in 2014. Another reason behind this will be the growing popularity of affordable ULV laptops.
As for tablets, Gartner distinguished between tablet PCs (slates with PC operating systems like Windows and Mac) and media slates (with iPhone OS, Android or Chrome). Only the former are included in the PC forecasts, though the latter are expected to influence the overall behavior of the industry in their own way.
"The mini-notebook segment will be impacted by increasingly competitive ultralow-voltage (ULV) products, the decreasing prices of all mobile PCs and the maturing preferences of consumers," said Raphael Vasquez, research analyst at Gartner. "Some consumers purchased mini-notebooks based solely on price. Many consumers are now choosing purchases up the price curve rather than at the bottom of it."
"Media tablets will not impact the mini-notebook segment this year," added Mr. Vasquez. "However, media tablets, such as the iPad and similar devices, will significantly detract from mini-notebook shipments in 2013 and onward, when we expect their prices to be lower and, more importantly, their functionality to be more similar to mini-notebooks."