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People have been using the PC and the laptop for years, and the tablets are a recent phenomenon. The form factor of the tablet is completely different from any computing device that we have been using so far. All these factors considered, it should come as a surprise that a fairly large number of PC and laptop users have decided to make a transition to tablets. When Steve Jobs had launched the first iPad, no one could have predicted that the device would one day have an impact on PC and laptop sales.
The unthinkable already seems to be happening. In Western countries many users who would have purchased a new laptop are now opting for a tablet. In a recent interview to the Wall Street Journal, the Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, has stated that the iPad had cut into laptop sales by as much as half! However, later on he recanted. Perhaps he had been forced to recant because he was hounded by the laptop and the PC lobby for reading out the premature obituary of their devices. The figure of 50 percent decline in the laptop and PC sales might be an exaggeration, but there is no denying the fact that tablets are the wave of the future.
Recently, Gartner came up with its report on PC sales. The report states, Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 85.2 million units in the second quarter of 2011, a 2.3 percent increase from the same period last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. These results are below Gartner's earlier projection for 6.7 percent growth. That the sales are less than fifty percent of what Gartner had expected should be cause for concern for the makers of PC and laptops. According to Gartner, HP continues to be the worldwide leader, as it accounted for 17.5 percent of worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter of 2011. Dell is at number two position.
The report from International Data Corporation (IDC) is also indicative of a similarly lacklustre growth in PC and laptop sales. Worldwide PC shipments increased by 2.6% to 84.4 million in the second quarter of 2011, the IDC report states. Neither Gartner, and nor IDC includes tablets in their quarterly tallies, so we dont know exactly how the decline in the growth rates of PC and laptop sales might have benefited the tablet industry. But the two reports do conclude that the sale of PC and laptops are being affected by the competition being offered by other devices. Specifically in case of USA market, the IDC report mentions that consumer appetite might be shifting towards tablets.
The Gartner analyst, Mikako Kitagawa says, Given the hype around media tablets, such as the iPad, retailers were very conservative in placing orders for PCs. Instead, they wanted to secure space for media tablets. Some PC vendors had to lower their inventory through promotions, while others slimmed their product lines at retailers. In Asia, Latin America and Africa, PC and laptop sales continue to grow at a robust pace as of now, but once people in these parts of the world become habituated to being networked while on the go, the sales of desktop devices might stagnate.
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