Report: Tablets to Outship Desktops This Year
Tablet PCs will outship desktop PCs for the first time this year, catapulting us into a true “post-PC era,” according to a report by researcher IDC.
Shipments of tablet PCs will surpass desktops as the former category grows by 48.7% and the latter shrinks by 4.3%, IDC estimates. In 2014, tablets will also outship portable PCs. “In emerging markets, consumer spending typically starts with mobile phones and, in many cases, moves to tablets before PCs,” said Megha Saini, research analyst for IDC’s Worldwide Smart Connected Device Tracker, in a statement. “The pressure on the PC market is significantly increasing and we can see longer replacement cycles coming into effect very soon and that, too, will put downward pressure on PC sales.”