The PC Calamity – @Asymco

Here’s an interesting analysis of PC shipments versus tablets from Asymco’s Horace Dediu.

“PC sales fell again last quarter and the contraction is likely to continue. …

At the same time, computing device sales have soared.”

I’m not sure the PC is dead yet.  The tablet form factor and (current) performance don’t lend themselves to intensive number-crunching or writing, but tablets have definitely defined a new market for “casual” computing.  Some of this would otherwise have been lower spec laptops but a large part is new incremental sales: floor-walking sales assistants, senior execs, computing-lite information workers and my mother-in-law.

The big question on PC makers minds must be whether growth will return with a new refresh cycle, mopping up those replacements that had been deferred in favour of an iPad?

And related to that is the question of whether users will then look more kindly upon touch-friendly Windows 8 and the hybrid PC/tablet devices that are slowly coming to market.

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