A range of media tablets and next generation smart phones are hitting the sales of personal computer market and these devices will displace 10 per cent of PC units by 2014, according to Gartner, a leading IT research company.
"PC market growth will be impacted by devices that enable better on-the-go content consumption such as media tablets and next-generation smart phones," said Raphael Vasquez, research analyst at Gartner.
Gartner on Monday has cut its forecasts for global computers shipments in 2010 and 2011, citing weaker demand as many customers choose a tablet computer over a PC. Worldwide PC shipments will expect 14.3 per cent increase from 2009, which is down from Gartner's previous PC shipment forecast in September of 17.9 per cent growth.
Similarly in 2011, worldwide PC shipments are forecast to reach 409 million units, a 15.9 per cent increase from 2010. This is down from Gartner's earlier estimate of 18.1 per cent growth for 2011.
"These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer demand, due to growing user interest in media tablets such as the iPad," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.
"Over the longer term, media tablets are expected to displace around 10 per cent of PC units by 2014," Atwal said.
According to Gartner, home mobile PCs have suffered the steepest downgrade with shipments in mature markets expected to be significantly weaker. Consumers in the US and Western Europe continue to postpone purchases in the face of financial and economic uncertainty.
However, Gartner said the bigger issue for PCs in the home market is consumers temporarily, if not permanently, forgoing PC purchases in favour of media tablets.
"In emerging markets (like India), consumers will leap frog PCs and move directly to alternative devices in the coming years rather than following the traditional pattern of purchasing a PC as their first computing device," Gartner said.
Media tablets are rapidly finding favor with PC buyers due to their more-dedicated entertainment-driven features and their instant-on capability.
"Media tablet's capabilities are expected to become more PC-like in the coming years, luring more consumers away from PCs and displacing a significant volume of the PC shipments, especially the mini-notebooks," Gartner said.
Courtesy: Mail Today 
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