Research company IDC has estimated a second year of decline in the PC desktop market.
"IDC now expects 2013 PC shipments to decline by 1.3 percent in 2013," says IDC's report, pointing to a shipment of 142.1m units this year compared to 148.4m in 2012.
H4cked Off: Rumours of the death of the desktop have been exaggerated Analysis: decision time for desktops Desktop decisions for Buro Happold as Windows 8 approaches
IDC's figures take in both emerging and mature markets, and estimate that by 2017, while worldwide figures will only have slipped to 141.0m units shipped, mature markets will see only 48.8m units shipped compared to 50.4m this year, and 53.4 in 2012.
"The US PC market struggled in 2012, culminating with a 6.5 percent year-on-year decrease in the fourth quarter and 7.6 percent decrease for the full year.
"Market saturation, a tough economic environment and weakness across the board, and lack of momentum for Windows 8, which led to 2012 contraction, are expected to persist at least during the first half of 2013," said research analyst Rajani Singh of IDC.
The implication seems to be that tablets may be starting to replace desktop, and laptop, machines. However, a recent survey by Computing, however, refutes some aspects of this trend.
40.3 per cent of those questioned in a readership survey revealed that their next purchased client devices would be desktops, with 33.3 per cent saying they would choose laptops. A touchscreen device would only be considered by 12.5 per cent.
49.3 percent of those surveyed revealed they had refreshed laptop or desktop real estate in 2012, while 41.1 percent intending to purchase laptops or desktops in 2013, and 34.2 percent in 2014.
Computing's survey also showed that, 64.4 percent of people said smartphones "will not replace desktops and laptops at [their] organisation within the next three years. Only 13.7 percent believed the tablet revolution was coming on so fast.
59.7 percent also believe that "everyone needs a device with a physical keyboard" to work, suggesting the desktop PC is not yet at the end of its life.
