2015 hasn’t been kind to the PC business as studies from both IDC and Gartner reveals that the PC sales continue to drop in the fourth quarter.
According to IDC, they estimate that computer shipments fell by roughly 10.6 percent, making it the steepest year-over-year drop in history. Gartner’s figures are slightly better as they calculated that the PC market suffered a 8.3% drop in the fourth quarter. This fall in PC sales affected all PC brands including names like ASUS and Lenovo. However, Apple made PCs are mostly unaffected by the drop in PC sales.
Both IDC and Gartner attribute the drop in PC sales to a combination of PC buyers’ behaviour and Microsoft’s stratefy. As PC upgrade cycles are getting longer, old PCs continue to be functional, allow PC users to hold out on buying a new computer to replace their aging machine. The ever increasing presence of smartphones and tablets further reduces the need for a computer. IDC also suspects that the free Windows 10 upgrades played a part wih the drop in PC sales, as PC users have no reason to buy a new computer just to experience Microsoft’s latest Operating System.
