The sales stats are in and they look pretty bad for PC manufacturers. The PC shipments are constantly going down, with a total loss of 11.5% in the first quarter of 2016 when compared with the same period in 2015. We see fewer and fewer desktop PC units sold.
What is really worrying is the fact that analysts believed that the drop will be of around 5% and the result was actually double. Even if we are to be optimistic and take into account other factors like the way in which a company uses shipments, we still end up with a drop of close to 10%. At this point in time we are looking at the worst quarter ever.
Manufacturers normally ship around 60 million personal computer systems. Last year we had between 68 and 70 million units reported. To make matters even worse, it is practically impossible to stop this trend because of various reasons.
Why Are Fewer PCs Bought?
All that we have to do is think about the number of options that are currently available on the market and analyze the evolution that is associated. The number of mobile devices used is growing. We see people wanting to use laptops, tablets and smartphones because of commodity.
Mobile devices, like phones, can be used anywhere. The desktop PC will restrict you to a physical location. You can always take the laptop with you and use it at a desk at work. You cannot take the desktop PC with you on vacation.
Current Expectations
Specialists, although they sometimes get it wrong, just as they did above, believe that we will see a constant decline until 2020. The most optimistic of the analysts say that we will have around 250 million units sold every year. However, something like this is really hard to believe given the constant drop and the huge focus that manufacturers put on mobile devices. We even have access to laptops that double as tablets these days.
The Saving Grace For PC Manufacturers
The only part of the industry where we see good news for desktop PC enthusiasts is offered by those activity fields where the use of desktop PCs is highly necessary. For instance, we can easily talk about gaming and video processing. We currently do not have the technology necessary to deal with all the graphics that are needed. In a laptop we would end up with too much heat. This is where desktop PCs shine and until technology evolves with laptops and portable devices in general, this is not going to change.
