As reported by CRN, there will be more PC casualties, according to a report by Gartner. The shake-out in the PC market has already claimed the likes of Toshiba and Sony, and companies like Acer may be next. Acer is surviving but its margins are pretty low.
The Gartner latest forecast predicts that the PC market decline will come to a halt this year, before sales grow modestly in 2018 and 2019.
Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal thinks there will probably be one more shake out to come over the next few years, and probably in the consumer market, as the business market never really collapsed.
Gartner predicts that the PC market unit shipments will fall from 270 million to 265 million in 2017, and will rise in 2018 to 268 million, and to 273 million in 2019.
Although the average selling price of PCs is increasing, sales will be essentially flat this year at $163 billion, and will then grow to $166 billion in 2018 and $169 billion in 2019.
The PC market is still declining, but not at the same rate seen previously. This is mainly due to the professional market which is still migrating to Windows 10, and this should continue this year.
The average selling price of PCs, which normally declines by 4-5% each year, is actually up 2%, which is a swing of around 7%. Users now seem more concerned with performance and screen size, than price. Another contributing factor for the rise in average selling price, is that DRAM prices are up 30-40% since last year.
Gartner also stated that as the users are now more concerned with performance, $50-$100 tablets are not doing very well in the market.
