The PC market is showing signs of having passed its peak. Weak demand by consumers for PCs, coupled with a switch to tablets such as Apple’s iPad, meant that worldwide PC shipments fell compared with the same period in 2010, according to two leading research groups.According to the research group Gartner, PC shipments were just 84.3m units in the first quarter of 2011 – a 1.1% year-on-year decline (from 85.1m units) which was especially marked in the US, where it fell by 6.1%.Another research group, IDC, which uses slightly different methodologies, said that global shipments were 80.56m, a year-on-year fall of 3.2% from 83.2m in the first quarter of 2010, and down more than 10% in the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/14/pc-market-has-passed-its-peak