PC sales to fall 10.1% this year: IDC

When 2013 officially comes to a close, global PC makers would have sold 10.1 per cent fewer PCs this year as against 2012 – the worst year on record, a new report by IDC points out.

According to the market research firm's earlier projections the PC market would contract by 9.7 per cent. Further the firm says the market would not hit rock bottom in 2014, but shrink by another 3.8 per cent.

Total 2013 shipments would wind up at around 314 million, "barely ahead of 2008 volumes," according to IDC.

The reason the company cites is that people were not getting rid of their old PCs.

Business Insider quoted Jay Chou, senior research analyst, Worldwide Quarterly PC Trackers at IDC saying, perhaps the chief concern for future PC demand was a lack of reasons to replace an older system.

He added, while IDC research found that the PCs still remained the primary computing device – for example, PCs were used more hours per day than tablets or phones – PC usage was declining each year with more devices becoming available.

IDC expects new sales to come from Windows tablets namely '2-in-1' machines, designed to work as both slate and 'clamshell' devices.

PC Magazine had pointed out in April, that it would be games that could drive new PC purchases.

PC shipments were down steeply in the first part of this year, and in April IDC reported that the number of PCs delivered to retailers worldwide had fallen by 13.9 per cent in the first three months of 2013, as against the 7.7 per cent originally predicted.

By October, things were looking somewhat better with the previous three months improving on IDC's forecasts, showing that the PC market had shrunk by the relatively small margin of 7.6 per cent during that time. This was partly due to a US market recovery, and increased uptake of Windows 8.1 machines.

The outlook today is much bleaker and even in 'emerging' markets, where sales have been rising, shipments would decline throughout 2014.