PC Sales Will Decline For First Time Since 2001, Report Says
For the first time in 11 years, worldwide PC sales are set to decline in 2012.
Forecasters at the industry research firm IHS released Thursday morning a prediction that international shipments of PCs will fall by 1.2 percent this year to 348.7 million units.
Craig Stice, a computer systems analyst for IHS, explained the company's findings in a statement.
"There was great hope through the first half that 2012 would prove to be a rebound year for the PC market," Stice said in the news release. "Now three quarters through the year, the usual boost from the back-to-school season appears to be a bust, and both AMD and Intel's third-quarter outlooks appear to be flat to down."
Though the drop in PC sales figures is not enormous at only 1.2 percent, the fact that 2012 will mark the first year since 2001 that PC sales haven't grown is significant.
PC makers were hopeful that a new wave of "ultrabooks," or lightweight laptops, would reinvigorate the market, but the ultrabooks have not been able to overtake the vastly growing popularity of smartphones and tablets like the iPad. Those types of devices reduce the need for businesses to update their office PCs so frequently, according to a report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The report from IHS forecasted that sales of ultrabooks will likely be only half what the industry anticipated by the end of this year.
Intel, which sits at the top of the PC market and makes microprocessors for 80 percent of computer devices, cut its projections for third-quarter sales by more than $1 billion last month. Intel is suffering because of the mobile device market, as most smartphones and tablets - including the iPhone and iPad - use processor chips from ARM Holdings, a rival competitor for Intel.
Amid the low forecasts for PC sales in 2012 and concern from analysts, Intel's stock was down 17 cents as of Thursday morning and is now trading at its lowest price all year.
