According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the rise of tablets like the iPad means that we’re living in a post-PC era.
It looks like consumers agree. According to recent numbers released by analyst firm Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totaled just 84.3 million units in the first quarter of 2011. That’s a 1.1 percent decline from the first quarter of 2010, and the first year-over-year decline in the PC market in six quarters.
According to Gartner’s principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa, weak demand for consumer PCs was ultimately the biggest obstacle in their growth this quarter. Although low prices have historically been enough to stimulate growth, that doesn’t attract buyers anymore as consumers now turn their attention to “media tablets” like the iPad 2.
Gartner’s not spelling this out explicitly, so we will: they’re saying the iPad is killing the PC. Sure, they claim that consumers are more and more frequently turning to “media tablets” instead of laptops and PCs, but the only “media tablet” shipping and selling in bulk right now is the iPad. It owns well over 90% of the tablet market, in fact. You can’t get any more clear… tablets are muting demand for the PC.
It gets worse. Even though decline in the global PC market was just 1.1%, Gartner says it would have been far, far worse if not for steady growth in the professional PC sector. Would even this demand lose its urgency if there was a more serious enterprise alternative (or deployment) of the iPad?
Of course, at the end of the day, the iPad isn’t really killing the PC, but it is showing that most people don’t need a PC for most things. That’s something Apple’s got to be pleased with, even as PC manufacturers panic.
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