The PC is dead, as many have claimed. If that’s the case, how did Strategy Analytics, a research firm, come to the conclusion that sales of PCs will spike five percent globally next year?
This jump will occur for mostly reasons. Next year, SA expects a lot of people to replace older PCs with newer ones.
Plus, despite what you may have heard, PCs are still “essential computing devices,” the report says. Plus, Strategy Analytics expects this modest growth pattern to continue past 2015 as well.
“Frequent usage” of PCs, which includes mobile and desktop rigs (but excludes tablets), occurs in over 90 percent of all households. That’s despite the fact that “frequent” use of tablets occurs in 32 percent of all households as well.
Digital Trends reached out to Strategy Analytics to determine how the firm defines frequent usage. SA Analyst Eric Smith informed us that frequent usage means “at least once weekly.”
“Multiple PC ownership is falling as Tablet sales supplant replacement demand for secondary PCs mainly used for casual tasks,” Smith says. “Still, PCs will remain essential devices as households eventually replace their primary PCs used for productivity tasks such as spreadsheet and video editing or personal banking.”
We suspect that Microsoft’s decision to stop supporting Windows XP also has something to do with the fact that SA is forecasting a significant spike in PC sales next year. Support for Windows XP ended back in April.
What also may impact PC sales is Windows 10, which Microsoft officially revealed on September 30. For now, its light on new features, but does include a new Start menu. However, Microsoft will be rolling out new bells and whistles for the OS as we get closer to its full launch, which is expected to occur sometime in the middle of next year.
