Tablet shipments to rocket by 53 percent in 2014; PCs to decline

(Image: CNET)

Latest Gartner figures show PCs, tablets, and mobile phones are expected to reach 2.32 billion units by the end of 2013, a 4.5 percent increase from a year earlier.

According to the research firm, lower-priced devices across all device categories are driving growth.

Breaking down the numbers a bit further, it is clear to see that tablets and smartphones are kicking the PC market while it's down. The latest projections show that while the traditional PC market, including desktops and notebooks, are expected to total 303 million units by the end of this year, accounting for a drop of more than 11 percent. In 2014, the PC market expected to drop even further to 281 million as tablets and smartphones pick up the slack. 

Tablets and smartphones are faring well, according to the figures. Tablet shipments alone are expected to grow by 53.4 percent this year, with shipments reaching 184 million units. However, it will take until past 2014 to overtake PC shipments altogether, which is expected to reach about 263 million.

Onto mobile phones, which are picking up the pace and have no let-up in sight. Already at the 1.7 million mark, in 2013 the mobile phone market is expected to rocket by more than 100 million, and just shy of that in 2014.

But mobile shipments are slowing, Gartner says. Once the crown jewels of the December holiday season — where sales are typically higher — the opportunity for high average selling price smartphones is ending. The focus is now, the firm says, on mid-tier and low-end Android-based smartphones in emerging markets.

According to Gartner's Carolina Milanesi, the firm is expecting to see a continued trend from last year during the holidays, notably an uptick in smaller tablets, as smartphone shipments wane.

(Image: Gartner)

One final nugget from the Gartner research bank: Android will retain the mobile platform crown for the next two years, taking more than 1.1 billion shipments by 2014.

While Windows remains flat in shipments — pegging in around the 350 million unit mark on average from 2012 through 2014 — the end-of-support for Windows XP in April 2014 is not expected to impact device sales. 

Gartner says 90 percent of large enterprises have already, or are making efforts to migrate to Windows 7 or Windows 8. It comes just a few weeks after Toshiba said the vast majority of its business upgraders from Windows XP are heading to Windows 7, and not Microsoft's latest operating system.

Meanwhile, Apple's mobile and desktop range will rocket in 2014, after remaining almost flat over the past two years, from 2012 to 2013. 

(Image: Gartner)

IDC: PC industry bleeding slows as Q3 global shipments beat estimates

For most of 2013, the narrative of the PC industry has been on the verge of becoming a bloody horror story. But the bleeding has finally slowed, based on the latest figures from the IDC.

The market research firm published its third quarter report on Wednesday after the bell, with analysts affirming that worldwide shipments of 81.6 million units beat expectations.

However, sales are still falling as shipments were down eight percent from the same time last year.

The short story here is that the PC market didn't do as badly as expected (for the time being) thanks to the enterprise and public sector markets with a "slight uptick in business volume" being a contributing factor.

IDC researchers summed up the consumer market contribution and sentiment as "lukewarm at best," pointing fingers at market share losses by Acer and ASUS respectively.

Lenovo, HP and Dell all saw gains in their global shares over the three-month period on an annual basis.

Nevertheless, Loren Loverde, vice president of the worldwide PC Trackers team at IDC, warned in the report that these figures should not be construed as a comeback for the global PC industry.

Whether constrained by a weak economy or being selective in their tech investments, buyers continue to evaluate options and delay PC replacements. Despite being a little ahead of forecast, and the work that’s being done on new designs and integration of features like touch, the Q3 results suggest that there’s still a high probability that we’ll see another decline in worldwide shipments in 2014.

Researchers highlighted the Asia/Pacific region as particularly troubling looking forward, notably in developing markets. However, sales in China were said to be better than expected at least.

Zoning in on the U.S., IDC analysts said the domestic PC market is demonstrating "signs of recovery," although shipments were down by approximately 0.2 percent annually. These positive turnaround signs hovered mostly around Windows, including a wider range of Windows 8 devices available now along with a notable migration pattern from Windows XP to Windows 7.

HP took the crown once again for the U.S. PC market, followed by Dell, Apple, Lenovo, and Toshiba, respectively.

Within the top five, only Apple experienced a decline in market share on an annual basis, dropping by 11.2 percent.

But while also touting interest around Chromebooks during the quarter, IDC senior research analyst Rajani Singh, Sr. ended things with a gloomy outlook, remarking "the U.S. market has not changed much, with hopes for a small increase in Q4 followed by a challenging 2014."

Table via IDC