PCs suffered largest ever global sales decline in 2013

Global PC sales fell at their fastest rate ever in 2013.

That’s according to Gartner which says that global PC shipments for the period fell ten per cent compared to 2012 to 315.9m units, equalling the sales seen in 2009.

For Q4 global PC shipments reached 82.6m units, down 6.9 per cent year-on-year, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of decline. EMEA Q4 PC shipments fell 6.7 per cent to 25.8m units.

"Although PC shipments continued to decline in the worldwide market in the fourth quarter, we increasingly believe markets, such as the US, have bottomed out as the adjustment to the installed base slows," Gartner’s principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa stated.

"Strong growth in tablets continued to negatively impact PC growth in emerging markets. In emerging markets, the first connected device for consumers is most likely a smartphone, and their first computing device is a tablet.

As a result, the adoption of PCs in emerging markets will be slower as consumers skip PCs for tablets."