Gartner: PC Sales Slowing Down

Even as Gartner predicts a slowdown in PC sales in second-half 2010, the research firm's analysts say businesses will find it "very difficult" to delay PC replacements. The age of the professional PC installed base is already at an all-time high. Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal warns that those businesses which delay replacing PCs will risk the following

• alienating employees
• burdening themselves with a growing number of service requests
• increasing support costs
• high migration costs when they eventually upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7

Although worldwide PC shipments are projected by Gartner to total 367.8 million units in 2010, a 19.2 percent increase from 308.3 million units shipped in 2009, the research firm reduced its forecast for second-half 2010 PC growth to 15.3 percent, approximately two percent below the previous forecast, in light of the uncertain economic outlook for the United States and Western Europe.

Gartner notes that the emergence of so-called media tablets, notably Apple's iPad and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab, will have an impact particularly on the netbook market. Gartner defines a tablet PC as having a touchscreen size of 5 inches or more, outfitted with a full-function operating system (OS), such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP or Mac OS X. A media tablet is defined as a device that has a screen size of 5 inches or larger and is outfitted with a restricted-function OS, such as iPhone, Android and Chrome.

For more, read the eWeek article PC Sales to Slow in Second Half of 2010.