Friday, March 9th 2012
Gartner Says PC Shipments Will Grow 4.4 Percent in 2012
Worldwide PC shipments are on pace to total 368 million units in 2012, a 4.4 percent increase from 2011, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. PC shipments are forecast to see higher growth by the end of 2013, when shipments are expected to reach more than 400 million units.
"PC shipments will remain weak in 2012, as the PC market plays catch up in bringing a new level of innovation that consumers want to see in devices they purchase," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "The real question is whether Windows 8 and ultrabooks will create the compelling offering that gets the earlier adopter of devices excited about PCs again."
In addition, while the economic environment and supply issues played a key part in the weaker PC market, it was a lesser concern to PC vendors compared to the far greater issue of changing consumer dynamics.
Gartner analysts said that 2011 redefined the landscape of the device market. "The use of applications such as e-mail, social networking and Internet access, that were traditionally the domain of the PC, are now being used across media tablets and smartphones, making these devices in some cases more valued and attractive propositions," said Mr. Atwal. "Consumers will now look at a task that they have to perform, and they will determine which device will allow them to perform such a task in the most effective, fun and convenient way. The device has to meet the user needs not the other way round."
Gartner expects ultrabooks will garner greater attention in the latter half of 2012, as the industry looks for this platform to reinvigorate the mobile PC form factor. "However, PCs will face more competition as we see new media tablets based on operating systems from Android and Microsoft, as well the new iPad," Mr. Atwal said.
"Moreover, we expect the shift to the personal cloud will also accelerate as consumers increasingly adopt cloud-based services as part of their digital ecosystem," Mr. Atwal said. "The evolution of the personal cloud will challenge vendors across all mobile devices markets and add to the hurdles for PC vendors to overcome to revive the PCs and differentiate them from tablets. The creation of content capabilities of PCs may not be enough to counteract the better content consumption capabilities of media tablets."
Mature PC markets will continue to be replacement market driven and their volumes will be much less than their emerging market counterparts.
"Emerging markets are key to driving worldwide PC growth in both the short and long-term, and our expectation is that 2012 and then 2013 onwards will be supported by growth in emerging markets as their share increases from just over 50 percent in 2011 to nearly 70 percent in 2016," said Mr. Atwal. "Emerging markets have very low PC penetration and even with the availability of other devices we still expect a steady uptake of PCs."
"PC shipments will remain weak in 2012, as the PC market plays catch up in bringing a new level of innovation that consumers want to see in devices they purchase," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "The real question is whether Windows 8 and ultrabooks will create the compelling offering that gets the earlier adopter of devices excited about PCs again."
In addition, while the economic environment and supply issues played a key part in the weaker PC market, it was a lesser concern to PC vendors compared to the far greater issue of changing consumer dynamics.
Gartner analysts said that 2011 redefined the landscape of the device market. "The use of applications such as e-mail, social networking and Internet access, that were traditionally the domain of the PC, are now being used across media tablets and smartphones, making these devices in some cases more valued and attractive propositions," said Mr. Atwal. "Consumers will now look at a task that they have to perform, and they will determine which device will allow them to perform such a task in the most effective, fun and convenient way. The device has to meet the user needs not the other way round."
Gartner expects ultrabooks will garner greater attention in the latter half of 2012, as the industry looks for this platform to reinvigorate the mobile PC form factor. "However, PCs will face more competition as we see new media tablets based on operating systems from Android and Microsoft, as well the new iPad," Mr. Atwal said.
"Moreover, we expect the shift to the personal cloud will also accelerate as consumers increasingly adopt cloud-based services as part of their digital ecosystem," Mr. Atwal said. "The evolution of the personal cloud will challenge vendors across all mobile devices markets and add to the hurdles for PC vendors to overcome to revive the PCs and differentiate them from tablets. The creation of content capabilities of PCs may not be enough to counteract the better content consumption capabilities of media tablets."
Mature PC markets will continue to be replacement market driven and their volumes will be much less than their emerging market counterparts.
"Emerging markets are key to driving worldwide PC growth in both the short and long-term, and our expectation is that 2012 and then 2013 onwards will be supported by growth in emerging markets as their share increases from just over 50 percent in 2011 to nearly 70 percent in 2016," said Mr. Atwal. "Emerging markets have very low PC penetration and even with the availability of other devices we still expect a steady uptake of PCs."
2 Comments on Gartner Says PC Shipments Will Grow 4.4 Percent in 2012
Its not going to work unless they are priced competitively. Netbooks are dirt cheap, sure they might not pack that much power or bling compared to ultrabooks but you get what you pay for. a side from the bigger screen and thin body thats probably too thin house any discrete GPUs that arent an improvement over the Intel GMA stuff it has nothing going for it.
I dont think ultrabooks will take the market by storm.
"The real question is whether Windows 8 and ultrabooks will create the compelling offering that gets the earlier adopter of devices excited about PCs again."
No it wont. an ultrabooks is a far cry from the performance of a PC. PCs arent slim and ultraportable like ultrabooks, they are big and brash, and give you uber leet gaming experiences then hand you an electricity bill to match at the end of the month
and lets face it....If a consumer is thinking they want to buy a pc after they just bought a ultrabook it would obviously be because the consumer requires more grunt under the hood that the ultrabook cant provide in which case makes the ultrabook a bad buy.
why is the ultrabook better then a cheap netbook for something you just want to carry around then dump in the corner and forget when you get home while you power on your leet uber $2000 gaming pc???
Like i said have said in a previous post before, Its because I have a beast in a box at home that I tolerate a smaller, slower and underpowered machine while out on the road.
the price of ultrabooks is key to its success.