Research firm Gartner is reducing its forecast for PC shipments in 2011 and 2012, saying the new tablets are depressing people's appetite for buying new personal computers.
Apple just announced its second generation iPad on Wednesday, which will start selling on Mar. 11.
Microsoft software sales largely depend on PC sales.
Gartner, which is based in Stamford, Conn., expects 389 million PCs to be shipped in 2011, a 10.5 percent increase from 2010. Previously, Gartner had projected a 15.9 percent increase from 2010 to 2011.
Gartner revised the forecast because demand for laptops in China is lower than expected and because consumers are not as excited about laptops and netbooks. Analysts consider tablets a "key factor" because they are waiting and seeing whether they want to buy a tablet instead of buying a new laptop or netbook.
Another research firm, IDC, expects 44.6 million tablets to be sold in 2011. Apple has 90 percent of the tablet market now with the iPad, and several tablets running Google's Android operating system have started selling this year.
"We once thought that mobile PC growth would continue to be sustained by consumers buying second and third mobile PCs as personal devices," George Schiffler, research director at Gartner, said in a news release. "However, we now believe that consumers are not only likely to forgo additional mobile PC buys but are also likely to extend the lifetimes of the mobile PCs they retain as they adopt media tablets and other mobile PC alternatives as their primary mobile device."
Gartner said PCs are no longer the "cool" device for consumers, giving way to the smartphone. Laptops and netbooks cannot compete with tablets or smartphones on battery life or weight, Gartner said, and social networking has driven demand for constant and immediate connection to the Web.
No comments:
Post a Comment