14 DAY TRIAL // For whatever reason, worldwide shipments of personal computers, be they desktops, notebooks or all-in-one systems, are falling much more quickly than anyone expected.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that 89.8 million PCs were shipped during the fourth quarter of 2012.
The number is 6.4% lower than Q4 2011, much like how overall 2012 numbers were 3.2% below those of two years ago.
Even now, Windows 8 continues to have a minimal effect on the industry, if it even has one.
Then again, people have been getting tablets these past two years, and if those devices prove to have any sort of future proofing (the ability to run new apps and tasks well even years down the line), the market may settle.
Either way, though some will disagree, there should come a time when tablets will no longer sell at the expense of everything else.