PC market woes show no sign of easing

It now projects total PC shipments of 268.3 million in 2016, which would mark a year-over-year decline of 3.1%, versus its prior forecast of a 1.1% decline.

It seems like ’tis the season for everyone but the manufacturers of personal computers.

That is not to say the PC has died, as in it is not used any longer, insisted IDC.

Despite the alarming decrease in global sales, IDC research Vice President Loren Loverde noted that some consumers might actually use the free Windows 10 update to understand the operating system before buying a new desktop, especially if the current hardware does not support the useful touchscreen capabilities offered by Windows 10.

Global smartphone shipments are losing steam, but lower-priced devices and the African market are likely to be engines of growth, says an worldwide research organisation. But most of the users are still testing the waters and have no plans to fully commit to the Windows 10 upgrade because the new operating system is widely criticized for having numerous bugs. “However, the experience of those customers may serve to highlight what they are missing by stretching the life of an older PC, and we expect they will ultimately purchase a new device”. Microsoft itself has a goal of bringing Windows 10 on 1 billion devices, but as compared to OEMs that need to sell new PCs, the software giant is more interesting in bringing people on the new OS version and only then convince them to buy new PCs.

Research firms like IDC and its rival, Gartner, have maintained that consumers will refresh their home PCs at some point, but their regular predictions of that have worn thin: The buy-a-PC timeframe has been repeatedly pushed out to a later date. Short-term headwinds like the strong dollar, depressed commodity prices, and existing inventory have also lowered the outlook for early 2016, although shipments are still expected to stabilize by the end of that year and grow slightly toward the end as commercial replacements rise.

Microsoft has set Windows 7’s retirement date as January 14, 2020.

However, IDC believes that shupments will stabilise by the end of next year and even grow towards the end of the year. Even that prognostication, however, means that the bottom of the trough won’t come until next year, and the growth from that will be so minor that 2019’s shipments will remain below 2015’s.

The statistical surveying firm anticipates that overall shipments will fall 10 percent in the final quarter, driving the year-over-year decrease in 2015 to 10.3 percent.