The PC market is expected to face stiff competition in the coming years from mobile and tablet devices, research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) reported Tuesday.
In 2013, worldwide PC shipments including desktops and laptops fell by 9.3 percent to stand at 315.1 million. The percentage fall is only slightly better than the estimated decline of 10.1 percent, pointed out the report from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.
Quoting the research, CNET attributed the short-term gains in 2013 to users upgrading from Windows XP.
Loren Loverde, Vice President, Worldwide PC Trackers in a release said emerging regions showed a greater effect.
"Emerging markets used to be a core driver of the PC market, as rising penetration among large populations boosted overall growth," he said.
"At the moment, however, we're seeing emerging regions more affected by a weak economic environment as well as significant shifts in technology buying priorities. We do expect these regions to recover in the medium term and perform better than mature regions, but growth is expected to stabilize near zero percent, rather than driving increasing volumes as we saw in the past," he further said.
While fourth quarter results were better than expected, the projections for 2014 was lowered by 2 percent and by 1 percent for subsequent years. The research also said that the revised estimates were enough to restrain any long-term growth, keeping the volumes below 300 million units.
Andi Handoko, Research Manager for Client Devices, IDC Asia/Pacific, said "2014 will remain a challenging year for PC vendors in Asia as a cautious economic outlook means consumers will prioritize device purchases. At the same time, tectonic changes in politics will affect commercial spending in some of the major countries, like India, Indonesia, and Thailand, which are due to hold elections this year."
He added, "The region is also seeing a void in public sector spending this year after huge education deals seen in India and Malaysia last year failed to materialize."
