It has been predicted by some experts that the number of shipments for personal computers will possibly decrease by 0.75% percent. From its last total shipment report of 268 million down to 266 million, it means around two million of shipments will possibly be lost this year.
This also might affect another personal gadget item like notebooks due to some newly formed factors like Microsoft's Surface and premium models like Apple's Mac Book Air which continues to grow rapidly. For tablets, analysts estimated that its shipments might also drop this year, as consumers had already been using the device for a long time.
In addition, the increase in orders for personal computers will be minor for 2018. Gartner is expecting that shipments of laptops, desktops and hybrids will just be around 272 million in 2018, increasing from 266 million in 2017. A research firm also confirmed that PC shipments in 2016 were 268 million.
Over the last few years, PC market had some successful moments. In the fourth quarter 2014, Gartner announced that its shipments increased by 1 percent. But in 2015, the same year when Microsoft launched it's Windows 10, PC shipments slowly dropped and got a double-digit decline.
Tim Cook, Apple's CEO said that personal computers can be replaced by their product which is the iPad Pro. "Yes, the iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones," Tim said during the 2015 famous interview.
According to Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, the demand for personal computers in 2019 will again increase because of a robust upgrade cycle. In fact, Gartner already predicted that shipments for 2019 will hit a whopping 278 million units.
Furthermore, at this week's CES, new laptops and desktops have been released equipped with a lot of cool features in PCs. With the technology, today, thinner and lighter PC's are built with high-resolution screens, USB-C ports, LTE connectivity, and touchscreens. Later this year, laptops will be equipped with Intel's superfast Optane storage.
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