Earlier this week, the International Data Corporation (IDC) released an updated prediction on the worldwide PC market for 2013-2014. According to IDC, the worldwide PC shipment number is expected to fall by 7.8% this year and 1.2% in 2014, with a final 2017 prediction of 333 million units. The analyst firm cited changing trends in computer usage as well as low Q1 2013 numbers.
The trends driving the latest IDC predictions include BYOD and consumer preference changes. The firm found that 25% of organizations currently support BYOD, and more are planning to implement processes in the future. Also, more organizations are looking at purchasing tablets, smartphones and other portable computers, rather than desktop PCs, to replace aging hardware.
Consumer trends are following a similar path. According to IDC, many people are relying solely on a tablet or smartphone for their basic computing needs, such as e-mail, social media and collaboration. Though consumers are holding on to desktop PCs for their higher-resource work, including photo editing, this type of work takes up a small amount of overall computing time.
Loren Loverde, Program Vice President, Worldwide Quarterly PC Trackers, IDC, spoke more on this in a press release this week: “Many users are realizing that everyday computing, such as accessing the Web, connecting to social media, sending emails, as well as using a variety of apps, doesn't require a lot of computing power or local storage. Instead, they are putting a premium on access from a variety of smaller devices with longer battery life, an instant-on function, and intuitive touch-centric interfaces.”
To view the report charts, please visit the site here.
