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"Back-To-School" PC Sales Collapse To Worst Since 2008

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Is it any wonder that there are rumors of CEO after CEO turning down the top-job at Microsoft? As Gartner just announced, the 2013 "back-to-school" sales quarter experienced its lowest PC volume since 2008. Excuses are myriad - from inventory channel delays, currency volatility, and operating system upgrades - but the bottom-line is that "cheaper Android-based tablets attracted first-time consumers," and the PC slide continues to its sixth consecutive decline in worldwide shipments.

 

 

Via Gartner,

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 80.3 million units in the third quarter of 2013, an 8.6 percent decline from the same period last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.  

This marks the sixth consecutive quarter of declining worldwide shipments.

"The third quarter is often referred to as the 'back-to-school' quarter for PC sales, and sales this quarter dropped to their lowest volume since 2008," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Consumers' shift from PCs to tablets for daily content consumption continued to decrease the installed base of PCs both in mature as well as in emerging markets. A greater availability of inexpensive Android tablets attracted first-time consumers in emerging markets, and as supplementary devices in mature markets."

HP and Lenovo have been virtually neck and neck for the top global position in the PC market. Lenovo took the lead, as it did last quarter, but the upcoming holiday sales season will be a key battlefield for both companies. Lenovo accounted for 17.6 percent of global PC shipments in the third quarter, and HP had 17.1 percent of shipments, according to preliminary results.

Weakness in the Chinese market continued to affect Lenovo's overall growth. However, strong growth in the Americas, as well as EMEA, offset the declining PC shipments for Lenovo in the Asia/Pacific market. HP recorded positive shipment growth in 3Q13 for the first time since 1Q12. With the exception of Latin America, HP's growth exceeded the average growth across all regions.

 

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Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:30 | 4041303 JP McManus
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Sequester. Shutdown. Weather. Tea Party. Something.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:33 | 4041311 Headbanger
Headbanger's picture

Back to school???    What for!!??

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:35 | 4041328 Frozen IcQb
Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:47 | 4041365 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

BTW- Boehner just caved.  He's gonna put a clean short-term budget up for a vote in the house.

Dow up 208 and spiking.  You must missed your last opportunity to BTFD.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:51 | 4041384 SquirrelButtDan
SquirrelButtDan's picture

Yay for kabuki theater! 0_o

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:37 | 4041331 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

So them chiluns can get sum book learnins?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:40 | 4041345 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

So they can get a free iPad, on which they will watch movies, and play games.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:51 | 4041382 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Back to school for your yearly dose of government indoctrination on the goodness and necessity of the State.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:54 | 4041418 Headbanger
Headbanger's picture

We don't need no education...

We don't need no thought control..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhgE5bfcFTU

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:39 | 4041337 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Windows 8 has done more to hasten the decline of the PC (which was coming anyway) than any other single factor.  Have you ever tried to use one?  Ponderous, man.  Totally ponderous.

When the kids finally killed their old hand-me-down laptop, I bought them a used/refurb one with 7 loaded on it.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:42 | 4041348 dobermangang
dobermangang's picture

I read one review that said... "if you really, really hate someone, give them an upgrade copy of Windows 8".

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:55 | 4041411 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

I gave up the large bulky PC and keep two laptops and a tablet. I also believe that Microsoft with their idiotic regular roll overs of operating systems is killing itself. Generally every other version is a loser and you have to wait till the next one to fix it. It also ends up being a game of endless rewriting of software and updates for newer versions. It is a never ending money game and people like me are getting tired of it.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:03 | 4041450 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

I love how the difference between XP and Windows7 is that in several applications it now takes more steps than it used to to do the same thing. PROGRESS, bitches.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:07 | 4041472 Hobbleknee
Hobbleknee's picture

But they call it ribbons, so it sounds cute!

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 19:48 | 4043280 neidermeyer
neidermeyer's picture

Windows 8 stinks with that bogus forced hardware upgrade to a touchscreen monitor .. yeah like that won't fail in a short time if you use the same app repeatedly... I won't buy a new one ,, my kids got refurb Dell Laptops from my company's IT dept.. still had 2-3 months of (extended) warranty on them ,,, only $100 each and they had Windows 7 Pro 64 COA stickers so I reloaded them with that (IT wipes them and sells them with xp) , Dell will send you a Windows7 disc free by FedEx if you re-register ownership to yourself and call their helpline..

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:33 | 4041306 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

What they need is a name change.  We suggest Macrohard.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:57 | 4041419 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

MACROHARD - The PRON Friendly OS!

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:16 | 4041532 monad
monad's picture

MOSSAD OS - Why aren't you working today?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:35 | 4041320 hugovanderbubble
hugovanderbubble's picture

STUDENT LOANS BUBBLE

Most young people dont know to write right

UNIVERSITY REITS BUBBLE

EDUCATION BUBBLE

the future has a name: AVALON RARE EARTH METALS  (CANADA)

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:36 | 4041322 John McCloy
John McCloy's picture

     Fuck it...we need some more deal rumors and can kick headlines...lets run this ponzi higher..who needs funadmentals when you have BBG headlines and printers. Are they rewriting the textbooks yet?

If only they had a union like the auto industry Pres could bail them out...It's not their fault EITHER than nobody wants their products.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:34 | 4041323 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Just give them away for free and count them as sales....can't these doofuses figure ANYTHING out??

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:43 | 4041350 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Better yet, put them in a pension plan as "promised benefits" at whatever price you like and they will drop straight to the bottom line in the next GDP calculation.  (Promised benefits are now counted directly towards GDP, wether funded or not)

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:53 | 4041408 TBT or not TBT
TBT or not TBT's picture

They should just print them, rather than however they do it now. Sheesh.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 19:50 | 4043283 neidermeyer
neidermeyer's picture

Can't they channel stuff like GM?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:41 | 4041343 J Pancreas
J Pancreas's picture

Back to campus: Yellen-Style! Cat-o-nine tails whip, crotchless panties and a dresser drawer full of rubbers (only for show to let her roomie think she isn't a skank -Yellen's a raw-dog girl)

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:01 | 4041453 SquirrelButtDan
SquirrelButtDan's picture

..heh :\ :/

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:40 | 4041344 MachoMan
MachoMan's picture

The worst, old ass, broke-dick computer can run an OS, word processor, web browser, and play solitaire...

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:54 | 4041415 TBT or not TBT
TBT or not TBT's picture

To run win 8 on the other hand....

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:49 | 4041378 orangegeek
orangegeek's picture

Macros are shit.  S&P's  up 25 - that's 1.5% for those who like working in percentages.

 

MOAR GONG SHOW!!!!

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:51 | 4041381 youngman
youngman's picture

I watched a mother yesterday with her two kids...they stopped at the same restaurant I was at....they all bought pops....sodas for you east coasters....the kids both had cell phones and all they did for 45 minutes was play games on them..not one word was spoken...and when the mom got up to leave the little girl did not even know she had a pop.....its a strange new world we live in....so disconnected from people..and only connected to a cellphone

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:12 | 4041510 MillionDollarAnus
MillionDollarAnus's picture

It's pop in upstate New York too but soda in North Carolina.  They call it booze chaser in Alaska though.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:51 | 4041386 kito
kito's picture

tyler where are the sales stats on the tablets for comparison?????

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:50 | 4041388 Shizzmoney
Shizzmoney's picture

This economy is just one really bad snuff film

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:52 | 4041391 oak
oak's picture

microsoft kills pc market, or pc kills microsoft.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 14:13 | 4042215 GeezerGeek
GeezerGeek's picture

This is the NSA speaking. We insist everyone use computers with limited local storage. We want everything stored "in the cloud", where we can get at it whenever we want and have backdoors into the encryption schemes. Only terrorists or software pirates need local storage. We now return control of your web browser to the user.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:53 | 4041397 Its Only Rock N Roll
Its Only Rock N Roll's picture

y by a pc wn u can by a tblt & tpe lke this a-day lng??!! lol...

:-)

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:08 | 4041488 Long-John-Silver
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Just add a bluetooth keyboard if you have problems with the on screen keyboard. Soon you will not need a keyboard at all, just talk to it.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:48 | 4041661 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Sure.  You'll love trying to work with Poser, Maya, or some other 3d design program or animation with iDistractions.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:48 | 4041662 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Sure.  You'll love trying to work with Poser, Maya, or some other 3d design program or animation with iDistractions.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:50 | 4041665 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Sure.  You'll love trying to work with Poser, Maya, or some other 3d design program or animation with iDistractions.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:50 | 4041668 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Sure.  You'll love trying to work with Poser, Maya, or some other 3d design program or animation with iDistractions.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:51 | 4041669 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Sure.  You'll love trying to work with Poser, Maya, or some other 3d design program or animation with iDistractions.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:51 | 4041670 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Sure.  You'll love trying to work with Poser, Maya, or some other 3d design program or animation with iDistractions.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 13:17 | 4041974 superflex
superflex's picture

Dude,

You need a new Dell, browser and patience.

FFS

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:54 | 4041406 ponyboy96
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Last I checked, you couldn't (or wouldn't want to) write a term paper or lab report on a tablet.  Aren't tablet sales also declining?  Anyways, how often do you need to replace a laptop?  Most kids have laptops these days which is why the sales are down.  Checking faceplant and other social waste of time sites are mostly done on mobile devices anyways.  See see tablets are the next greatest thing!  No, they will amount to netbooks in the next few years.  Remember those?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:58 | 4041427 TBT or not TBT
TBT or not TBT's picture

Keyboardz rul.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 14:19 | 4042222 GeezerGeek
GeezerGeek's picture

Do the schools still teach touch-typing, or do all the youth just use their thumbs on full-size keyboards? Or index fingers on full keyboards, thumbs on mobile devices?

Not that most of them have anything worth saying, anyway.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:57 | 4041430 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Tablet = bastard son of netbook and cellphone = all the bad features of each and none of the good.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:03 | 4041460 Long-John-Silver
Long-John-Silver's picture

Desktops and Laptops are obsolete. This includes both Microsoft and Apple Operating Systems. Mobile Devices using Open Source Operating Systems  with a Linux Kernel has already become the dominant system. When most TV's come equipped with DLNA the death of Desktops and Laptops will be complete.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:31 | 4041596 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Sorry, it ain't happening in the creative world.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 14:21 | 4042243 GeezerGeek
GeezerGeek's picture

I think he was referring to devices in the edutainment arena, not for creative/professional use. 

Then there are those of us whose eyes prefer a 24" screen. 

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:45 | 4041646 SimMaker
SimMaker's picture

I make video games and simulators for a living, have worked in film FX too in the past. No one in our game uses tablets unless they are some mangment type or PR or other useless hangers on that actually "do" nothing.

 

People will still need desktop machines (and mainframes) to do "serious" computing/creative work........I think the big change is that people who do NOT need serious computers, children, manual laborers, etc....have begun to make do with the dumbed down toys like tablets and phones. Its enough for most drones to play games and check Faceplant. But there will always be a place for serious computing grunt.

 

And I work on 30 inch screens running at 2560x1600 res, I dont really fancy doing graphics on some piece of shit phone with a 4 inch screen, you know?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 16:12 | 4042630 mkkby
mkkby's picture

What YOU do is irrelevant and totally uninteresting.  This article is about a major shift in PC buying habits.

Just like mainframes will never totally die, large PCs will still be around.  But the world has shifted to hand held devices.  The discussion is about how does Microsoft fare in such a world.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 17:15 | 4042816 smacker
smacker's picture

Well, hopefully Microsoft will fare very badly in this change of product emphasis.

They've dominated and virtually wrecked the PC desktop op/sys - even with all its shortcomings, I still believe XP will be seen as the high point of MS op/sys products - let's hope they aren't given a chance to wreck the tablet/smartphone op/sys too.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 13:19 | 4041981 superflex
superflex's picture

Sez the 18 YO.

Try running Autodesk Civil 3D on a tablet.  Let me know when you have those cut/fill quantities for the landfill expansion.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 13:22 | 4041993 superflex
superflex's picture

TV's and mobile devices are all you need?

Please tell me you dont vote.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 17:00 | 4042780 smacker
smacker's picture

Mobile Devices are toys. Try running any serious programs on one.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:13 | 4041515 monad
monad's picture

Good. Death to spies.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:23 | 4041557 involuntarilybirthed
involuntarilybirthed's picture

Sales for manual typewriters also falling.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 11:55 | 4041692 BlueCheeseBandit
BlueCheeseBandit's picture

Are kids finally realizing school is for fools?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 12:09 | 4041730 RKDS
RKDS's picture

It can't possibly be because computers have been good enough for several years or that Windows 8 is terrible so it _must_ be the Democrats.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 12:19 | 4041791 bagehot99
bagehot99's picture

"Windows 8 is a piece of utter shit. Don't fucking buy it".

PC World, October 10, 2013

...In a just world.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 12:29 | 4041828 Non Passaran
Non Passaran's picture

v8.1 doesn't look bad.  And Windows 7 is still available.

In case you haven't heard, there are free OS that work on x86-64 processors (and "PCs" that run them), such as Linux and BSD.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 13:49 | 4042130 Davilis
Davilis's picture

Our schools are giving out Chromebooks to all students.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 14:20 | 4042232 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Wow, stunning drop, especially for Acer and Asus.

Acer and Asus are the companies patronized by many geeks, the kids that buy their own gear and build a machine, or buy a desktop or laptop and configure it on their own (put Linux on it - "customize" it).

I'd bet a lot of those former geeks are now going to a smartphone or a console.

My kids have gone from desktop, to laptop, to smartphone.

In other words - big screen with lots of storage > small screen portable > take anywhere cloud storage smart phone.

Besides, at the schools I don't' think they make the kids read or write anymore - they just participate.

And BTW - this could also be an indication that the economy sucks worse than it did.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 14:35 | 4042282 GeezerGeek
GeezerGeek's picture

As a non-casual user, even in retirement I prefer multiple (at least three) large screens over a single one of any size. In that respect, Win8 was a disapprointment which I rarely use. Nvidia, one of the premier graphics card companies, even lobotomized their linux drivers to restrict functionality to two screens at a time in their more recent drivers, or so I've read. I also don't like to be forced into cloud storage, because the NSA already knows too much about me. Why make it easy for them?

And IMO anyone who would go to and be satisfied with a smartphone or console probably wasn't a geek to begin with. 

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 15:20 | 4042429 A Cruel Accountant
A Cruel Accountant's picture

Does this include tablet sales?

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 17:04 | 4042790 smacker
smacker's picture

I suspect all we are seeing is a shake out of people who used a PC because that's all that was available for many years. Now we see tablets and smartphones on the market the less computer-needy people are switching to them.

Thu, 10/10/2013 - 21:09 | 4043519 suicidalpsychologist
suicidalpsychologist's picture

It s easy to understand: people got poorer and more money savvy. Also the portable devices are not creative tools, merely portable TVs.  you cant do shit with these piece of crap, and, you have to buy a new one every 6 months because they re not repairable.

Most people in their 30 s and 40 s at some point realize you dont need a big computer to surf and do some basic computing, have come to know what can be done with a basic computer if you take care of it and get into building your own, people got smarter as simple as that, and they use the billions of refurbished business computers bought for cheap too instead of buying expensive useless crap. Nothing beats the desttop/tower. HTPCs , computers in console/small cases that do everything are the future.

That's the just the way it is, it's a dead end, not much progress to expect in that area anymore. Also yeah, microsoft os have been pure crap developed only to have something to sell, but let's be honnest here, you can do everything with windows..XP , anything else after that was unnecessary.

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