Gartner came out with their quarterly press release detailing PC shipments in 2011. In Q1, they found Worldwide PC shipments totaled only 84.3 million units. It’s only a 1.1 percent decline from Q1 – 2010, however, this trend has shown that PC shipments have, for the first time, suffered a year-over-year decline.
That means PC shipments have declined for 2 years in a row. This after Gartner predicted a 3 percent growth in Q1.
Of course, you can guess what caused the decline.
“Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers. Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We’re investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market.”
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q11 (Units)
Company | 1Q11 Shipments | 1Q11 Market Share (%) | 1Q10 Shipments | 1Q11 Market Share (%) | 1Q11-1Q10 Growth (%) |
| HP | 14,797,299 | 17.6 | 15,312,468 | 18.0 | -3.4 |
| Acer Group | 10,893,793 | 12.9 | 12,412,859 | 14.6 | -12.2 |
| Dell | 9,984,370 | 11.9 | 10,210,766 | 12.0 | -2.2 |
| Lenovo | 8,137,904 | 9.7 | 6,976,683 | 8.2 | 16.6 |
| Toshiba | 4,821,600 | 5.7 | 4,580,746 | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Others | 35,615,953 | 42.3 | 35,686,995 | 41.9 | -0.2 |
| Total | 84,250,918 | 100.0 | 85,180,518 | 100.0 | -1.1 |
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablet such as the iPad.
Source: Gartner (April 2011)
Will this Trend Continue?
While we are definitely on a tablet kick, we still need another computer for when the tablet becomes more of a hindrance. Something that holds more data, plays higher-resolution games, sits on the desk while we enter finances or taxes, or something that has a little more horsepower than the iPad or Galaxy Tab. It’s definitely getting overshadowed by a tablet, but we are not ready to ditch the old tower or laptop just yet.
The big question: Have you parted ways with your desktop or notebook for a tablet? Let me know by commenting below.