Research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has lowered its previous forecast of 7.1% for sales of personal computers for this year to 4.2%.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, PC sales dropped by 1.1% in the first quarter compared to last year.
The company said that declining first quarter shipments, an increasingly conservative economic outlook, relative saturation among developed market consumers, and competing products will lead to slow growth in 2011.
IDC said that the growth in 2009, which was remarkably independent of the economic pressures following the housing bubble, banking crisis, and related recession, was largely fuelled by the mini notebook.
However, relative saturation, limitations, and better competition from both mainstream notebooks and media tablets, led to a decilne in sales.
According to IDC’s stats, notebooks and tablets increased 31 million and 17.9 million units in 2010 respectively compared to just 1.3 million for mini notebooks.
However, IDC said that the PC market could see a rebound in 2012.
It said, "For 2012 through 2015, growth is still expected to fall in the 10 to 11% range."
IDC added, "Despite incursions by smartphones and media tablets, PCs have a large user base and ecosystem, and continue to represent the most comprehensive and affordable computing platform. Adoption by new users in emerging regions as well as replacements in more mature markets will continue to drive double-digit growth through the end of the forecast."
In March this year, another research company Gartner had also lowered its forecast for PC sales from 15.9% to 10.5% this year.
