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IDC: PC market expected to continue decline for second year in a row

Tablets are still held accountable for luring consumers away from traditional desktop and laptop PCs, according to the IDC.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor
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Bad news for the PC industry: The global PC market is expected to decline for the second year in a row, according to the International Data Corporation.

See also: IDC: Smartphones to overtake feature phones this year; all eyes on BRIC nations

In a report published on Monday, the IDC predicted that PC shipments will decline by 1.3 percent in 2013. That's less than the 3.7 percent decline in 2012, but it's still not terribly reassuring to PC makers and supply chain partners.

Looking back on 2012, the main culprits were disappointing holiday sales, the global economic downturn, and a limited reception for Windows 8 -- which, to be fair, was released late in the year.

Tablets are also still held accountable for luring consumers away from traditional desktop and laptop PCs.

Loren Loverde, program vice president for worldwide PC tracking at the IDC, added in the report that the PC market is looking for (and banking on) new PC models to drive growth.

Growth in emerging regions has slowed considerably, and we continue to see constrained PC demand as buyers favor other devices for their mobility and convenience features. We still don't see tablets (with limited local storage, file system, lesser focus on traditional productivity, etc.) as functional competitors to PCs – but they are winning consumer dollars with mobility and consumer appeal nevertheless.

Loverde refrained from naming Ultrabooks outright as those new models that could serve as potential growth drivers -- perhaps because those shipments fell short in 2012 too.

Nevertheless, the IDC forecasted that the PC industry can only expected "limited growth" for 2014 and 2015.

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