Without any doubt, 2013 was an annus horribilis for the PC industry,
when shipments declined by 10 percent, and many industry experts
anticipated 2014 to be slightly better, mainly due to the expiration
of Windows XP, support for which ended last month. But, it seems
even the threat of running an unsupported OS hasn’t been able to
stem the decline, if the latest reports are anything to go by. Though
many analysts said the market has bottomed out and predicted a
recovery, the preliminary results from Gartner indicate global PC
shipments totaled 76.6 million in the first quarter, a 1.7 percent decline
from the first quarter of 2013. This means eight consecutive quarters
of decline for the industry. With the sole exception of Japan, the PC
market continues to be in a free fall all over the world. With most
users preferring to skip PCs for tablets and smartphones, especially
in emerging markets, there seems to be no silver lining in sight.
