PC Market to Drop by 6 Percent in 2014

Technology research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) on Tuesday has predicted the personal computer (PC) market will contract by six percent in 2014, and will continue to decline at least until 2018. 

Sales volume would slip from 315.1 million units in 2013 to 291.7 million units in 2018. The figures include traditional PCs such as laptops and desktops but exclude Surface devices, Android tablets and iPads.

In short, IDC's predictions expect PC sales to fall under 300 million. In December, IDC had a different view, predicting 3.8 percent in PC shipments for the current year, and then for PC sales to become "slightly positive in the longer term". That would have kept shipments above 300 million units.

What caused IDC to change its prediction? "Emerging markets are not performing as expected," wrote IDC as quoted by TechCrunch, Tuesday.

After noting that emerging markets performed as expected in the fourth quarter, 

"concerns about the impact of slower economic growth, the culmination of some large projects, and conservative expectations for factors like touch capability, migration off of Windows XP, as well as continued pressure from tablets and smartphones has further depressed expectations going forward."

IDC went on to say "emerging markets used to be a core driver of the PC market". Weakness there led to expected growth rates and changed IDC’s prediction of a PC market above 300 million units.

Source : Tempo