PC market down for eighth consecutive quarter

Market research firm Gartner, Inc. have issued a press release this week claiming that in the third quarter of this year, PC shipments have dropped 5.7 per cent, year-on-year.

This puts them at roughly 68.9 million units worldwide, which according to Gartner, Inc. is important, because PC shipments have been down for eight consecutive quarters, something Gartner has described as "the longest duration of decline in the history of the PC industry."

"PC manufacturers faced many challenges," claims the press release. "Which included weak back-to-school demand, and ongoing low demand in the consumer market, especially in emerging markets."

I’m not so sure, honestly, that this is anything for PC gamers or developers to worry about – the professional market for PC’s has been shrinking for a while now, and is entirely unrelated to those of us who sit down at their desks to game. In the home too, people just aren’t that fussed about owning a computer for a lot of reasons.

Gartner is pointing the finger for this decline at the rise of smartphones and tablet computers, after the mobile market’s meteoric rise in recent years. Also, mentioned was the lack of demand for PC’s in developing markets, where PC penetration is low, but so is interest.

The market in EMEA territories has fallen 3.3 per cent since last year. Most of this decline has been blamed on "very weak demand in Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Middle East and Africa". Gartner did point out that Brexit had no immediate impact on PC sales, but that "the depreciation of the British pound against the U.S. dollar caused some vendors to indicate prices will increase through the end of 2016 and into 2017."

Earlier this year, Gartner, Inc. reported that smartphone sales were on the rise, which could explain some of the PC’s decline. With tablets and phones becoming more powerful, we’ll probably see more decline in the PC market before anything stabilises.