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Tablets may eclipse laptops in 2014, but there's no post-PC future on the horizon |
March 27, 2013
After Apple launched the iPad in 2010, it didn’t take critics long to start asking if this new breed of one-panel touch tablets would kill the PC market as people opted for slates over clamshells. Now, more than three years, four iPads, and a gazillion Android tablets later, the answer to that question is finally taking shape.
Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to overtake desktop PCs in 2013 and laptops will suffer the same fate one year later, according to market research firm IDC. (IDC and PCWorld are both owned by International Data Group). That would seem to be a pretty definitive case that PCs are about to be replaced by tablets—but on closer inspection that’s not what IDC's numbers are truly saying.
Tablets rising
There’s little question the market for tablets is exploding. In 2012, IDC said global tablet shipments grew by 78.4 percent compared to the year previous. Meanwhile the market share of desktop and portable PCs (laptops, Ultrabooks, etc.) dropped by 4.1 and 3.4 percent, respectively. And that's just the start of the bleeding: IDC predicts the desktop market will drop another 4.3 percent in 2013, while laptops are expected to stay relatively flat at a growth rate of just 0.9 percent.
But percentages can be deceiving and they tell only half the tale of IDC’s predictions. Peering ahead to the future, IDC’s numbers suggest that while the overall market share for PCs will decline, shipments will still increase, if only by a hair. In other words, the demand for PCs isn't dying down—it’s just that the thirst for mobile devices is exploding.
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Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2032207/tablets-may-eclipse-laptops-in-2014-but-theres-no-post-pc-future-on-the-horizon.html#tk.rss_all
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