New IDC Study Says Tablets to Surpass Desktop PC Sales This Year & Laptops in 2014

[dgstorm]

If you are in the PC industry, this must be a gloomy projection. A new study from research firm IDC indicates tablets are expected to finally outship desktop PCs in 2013, and are on track to surpass laptop PCs next year. Here's a quote with the details,

Tablets are due to outship desktops in 2013 and notebooks in 2014, while both of those PC segments will either lose ground or see relatively flat growth. The desktop market is expected to shrink consistently through 2017, when growth is expected to be -1%.

All told, IDC forecasts that companies will shift 190 million tablets worldwide this year, which would mark an annual growth of 48.7%, while smartphones shipments are expected to swell by 27.2% to 918.5 million units. Looking further ahead, the researcher says smart connected devices will reach shipments of 2.2 billion units and revenues of $814.3 billion in 2017, with tablet and smartphone growth tapering to 9.8% and 8.5%.

Last year, we predicted this would happen, as did several analysts across the industry. It's simply proof-positive that if you are a tech company and you aren't in mobile right now, you should be.

Thanks for the tip, cereal killer!

Source: TechSpot

 

[nsaxiom]

With everyone sideloading Flash onto their Jellybeans, and this forecast of tablets surpassing PC's, you'd think Adobe would take a clue and continue Flash development as long as there is a demand.