Is growth in PC sales gone forever?

It seems that negative PC growth is the new normal these days, but believe it or not – the PC is not dead!

The tech world was surprised when stats from PC shipments of IDC and Gartner showed a much higher decline than more PC market trackers had ever expected. Apparently Gartner saw their PC shipments decline by 9.5%, while IDC saw theirs decline by 11.8%. Overall, both of these companies feel that PC sales will be off around 5 to 6 percent this year, with no real growth in the future.

Professional industry analysts say that this is the steepest decline they have ever seen. Yes, PC sales have been on the decline for many years now, but there has never been quite a drop as steep as Gartner’s and IDC.

It appears that the days of serious PC growth are just about gone forever!

Back in the day, a computer was the only device we could use to connect to the internet, data and more. But these days we have all kinds of digital devices… smartphones, tablets, laptops and even wearable technology to make these connections. Need help with your devices? Contact The Computer Guyz in Cape Town or Centurion and they can provide you with a wide range of services from general IT support and network solutions to website hosting or just some friendly advice.

PCs are not used so often anymore, only in the office environment do we see computers being used on a regular basis. But even in corporate offices, where the PC is the dominant gadget, workers use smartphones and tablets more than ever to manage things like productivity.

 A researcher suggested that PC sales could drop from about 400 million per year to about 250-260 million in the next three years. If this is true, then only three or four PC vendors are likely to survive and the others will be kicked out of the market.

So, if this does happen in the PC market, which brands will remain? Most probably, Lenovo, Dell and Apple will do well and survive, HP also has a shot too!

At the same time that PC growth has declined, the demand for tablets has declined as well. This might be because tablets are an important mobile tool, but smartphones are being created that are just as big and have all the same features, so why do you need a tablet anyway?

That leaves smartphones as the only market that has a large amount of growth. The good news is the smartphone market is still growing, and researchers believe that by 2020, there will be 3.5 billion smartphones sold annually.

Although the demand for tech products  will continue to be in high demand, the PC growth era seems to be almost over.