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Tag: PCs

  • Tech Shipments Growing, Despite Languishing PC Market

    With many parts of the worldwide economy still struggling to recover from the recent economic recession, the tech industry still appears resilient enough to weather just about any market fluctuations. Market research firm Gartner today released a new report showing that shipments of tech products are still continuing to rise.

    The report predicts that shipments of PCs (including “ultramobile” PCs), tablets, and mobile phones are set to hit a combined 2.5 billion units during 2014. This represents a nearly 6.9% increase over shipments seen in 2013.

    This rise in shipments will come despite the continued decline in traditional PC sales. Gartner estimates that only 276.7 million desktop and notebook PCs will ship during 2014, a 6.5% decrease over 2013 shipment numbers. This trend is predicted to continue into 2015, when the firm estimates that only 263 million desktops and notebooks will be shipped.

    “The traditional PC category continues to decrease, with only about two-thirds of notebook and desktop replacements remaining within this category,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “The majority of the remaining one-third will move to ultramobiles, while others will not be replaced at all.”

    Making up for the traditional PC slowdown is the tablet market, which is predicted to continue its impressive growth will into next year. Tablet shipments are predicted to rise to 270.7 million units during 2014 (a 38.5% rise over 2013 shipments) and are predicted to top traditional PC shipments in 2015 with 349.1 million units shipped.

    Mobile phone shipments are also expected to continue rise in the coming years. Gartner estimates that nearly 1.9 billion mobile phones will ship during 2014, a 4.9% increase over 2013 shipments.

    As the tablet and smartphone segments begin to saturate mature markets, marketing focus will shift toward emerging markets such as China. The coming glut of smartphones and tablets will also breed extensive competition between manufacturers, cutting margins to razor-thin levels and pushing out weaker competitors.

    Meanwhile, traditional PC manufacturers are still desperately trying to find a way to make notebooks and desktops more relevant to the consumer market. Features such as Ultra HD displays and touch displays will soon become standard for notebooks, though it is still unclear whether such features will lure consumers back from more mobile tablets.

    “Tablet substitution of notebooks will start to dissipate from this year onwards as consumers and businesses align the right device with the right usage pattern,” said Atwal. “As they do this, we will see where dedicated devices (such as tablets), or hybrid devices (detachable or convertible devices), fit in the overall portfolio of devices.”

    Image via Samsung

  • Even More Hybrid Tablets Are on the Way

    Even More Hybrid Tablets Are on the Way

    The PC market is still in decline, though the bottom of the market may now be in sight. At the same time, the tablet market is still going strong, growing nearly every quarter at a rapid pace.

    Given these realities, it isn’t surprising that PC manufacturers are now turning to hybrid PC/tablet devices to boost their notebook segments. The only problem is that these devices might fit a niche that doesn’t yet exist. With many containing hardware inferior to notebooks in the same price range, consumers looking for productivity seem to be turning toward Chromebooks and slim notebooks while favoring their substantially smaller tablets as mobile computing devices.

    Still, these facts aren’t likely to stop manufacturers from building out the hybrid PC/tablet market. Market research firm Juniper Research today released a new report predicting that PC manufacturers will ship almost 50 million hybrid tablet devices by the year 2018. This represents a significant rise from the estimated 9.5 million hybrid tablets that were shipped during 2013.

    Judging from the current lineup of hybrid tablets, it would be easy to dismiss the segment an already failed attempt to shove the tablet hype into the notebook space. While this may be true with current devices, Juniper predicts that devices released over the next few years will increase the diversity of the market and bring some worthwhile products that certain consumers may purchase.

    Juniper predicts that hybrid tablets will be expecially attractive to enterprise customers and gaming enthusiasts. Luckily for manufacturers, these two types of consumers are exactly the type of niche consumers willing to spend a premium for high-end devices. This should help keep the average sale price for hybrid tablets steady in the coming years.

    The firm also believes that the education market may embrace hybrid tablets in the coming years as tablets become viewed increasingly as an educational tool. Hybrid tablets that are priced lower could appeal significantly to governments looking to supply schools with tablets that are more functional that traditional tablets.

    Image via Asus

  • More Chrome OS All-in-Ones Coming This Year

    The PC market is contracting after the surge of mobile devices in recent years has made desktop and even notebook computers look expensive and old-fashioned. In addition to ultramobile notebooks, one of the only PC categories still growing is, oddly enough, Chromebooks. Now it seems that larger PC manufacturers will be doubling down on Chrome OS with new all-in-one PCs.

    A new DigiTimes report hold that both Samsung and HP will be launching all-in-one PCs that run on Chrome OS sometime in 2014. LG has already announced a Chrome OS all-in-one, the Chromebase.

    The report’s unnamed “Taiwan-based supply chain makers” claim that Samsung will be launching three Chrome OS devices this year, including the all-in-one. That total does not include the two new Chromebooks that Samsung unveiled earlier this month.

    DigiTimes’ sources claim that the rise of Chrome OS is now worrying Microsoft, which has been struggling to raise adoption rate for its Windows 8 OS. The sources point out that Windows education market share has fallen to under 30% while Chrome OS education market share has risen to almost 20%. The low cost of Chrome OS devices are influencing even the enterprise market, where Chrome OS is also steadily increasing its market share.

    The prediction of new all-in-one Chrome OS devices is in-line with predictions early this year that PC manufacturers will be leaning on Chromebooks to prop up their 2014 shipment numbers. The devices led the notebook segment during 2013 and consumers looking for easy-to-use, highly mobile notebooks at low prices appear to be flocking to Chrome OS over Windows 8-based devices.

    Image via HP

  • Even the Mobile PC Market is Languishing

    It’s well-known that the overall PC market is in a downward spiral. Quarter after quarter shipments of PCs have been falling as consumer turn toward lower-priced tablets for their basic computing needs. Even notebook PCs have seen sales drop over the past two years.

    Market research firm IHS today issued a report showing that mobile PCs – that is to say, notebooks and PC tablets – are still seeing fewer year-over-year shipments. The report estimates that 52.6 million mobile PCs shipped during the fourth quarter of 2013, a 5% drop in shipments from the fourth quarter of 2012.

    There was some hope from investors that PC sales during the holiday quarter might pick up, with new technology debuting and businesses being forced to upgrade their computing infrastructure from Windows XP. Shipments during the fourth quarter did represent a 9.4% increase over third quarter shipments, marking the second quarter in a row to see a quarterly rise in shipments. According to IHS, however, this wasn’t enough for investors, who have to consider the fourth quarter the sixth straight quarter to see year-over-year shipment declines.

    “Things were looking positive for the fourth quarter of 2013 after the third had come in on target,” said Craig Stice, director for compute, servers, and storage at IHS. “But with the consumer PC market struggling, PC vendors proceeded to maintain a conservative buying plan for the holiday season with attempts to keep inventory levels lean. As a result, entry-level PCs did not make it into high volume for the holidays, and overall shipments underperformed the initial heady outlook.”

    Image via Samsung

  • Dell Layoffs Confirmed; Numbers Smaller than Rumored

    Dell Layoffs Confirmed; Numbers Smaller than Rumored

    Earlier last month, reports leaked stating that Dell was preparing to layoff a massive amount of its workers worldwide. The Register, a British technology website, stated on January 9th that Dell would layoff 20% of its U.S.-based sales members, while also relieving 30% of its sales and marketing staff in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. These numbers would mean that over 15,000 Dell employees would lose their job.

    However, actual statements have now been released from Dell which show that the rumors wildly exaggerated the situation. Sources close to those at recode.net have divulged information which reports that around 2,000-3,000 workers will be laid off by Dell, much lower than the 15,000 figure being tossed around at the beginning of the year.

    Along with this new information from insider sources come a statement from head of communication David Frink, in which he sheds some light on Dell’s decision and future plans:

    “We can confirm that a small percentage of Dell’s global team members accepted the company’s offer of a significant severance package associated with a voluntary separation program. We’ve taken steps to optimize our business, streamline operations and improve our efficiency over the past few years. And, like any prudent business, we’ll continue to do so. Meanwhile, we’re hiring in strategic areas of our business, including hardware and software development, engineering and customer coverage worldwide… Reports that we have laid off as many as 15,000 are wildly inaccurate.”

    The severance package which Frink mentions consists of 2 months of pay plus an extra week of pay for each year employed by Dell, along with a 75% bonus in pay, COBRA health insurance for 18 more months, and outplacement services.

    The layoffs come just months after Michael Dell and an investment firm bought all of Dell’s stock shares, effectively making the company private. The move was made with the mindset that it would allow Dell to focus on long-term, enterprise solutions, following massive declines in PC sales due to the rise of tablets and mobile devices.

    Image via Facebook

  • Ultra HD PC Monitor Market Seen Rising

    Ultra HD TV sets were the main attraction at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. TV manufacturers are hoping that higher resolutions can entice consumers who were so apathetic about 3D over the past two years and prices for ultra HD TV sets are set to fall quickly.

    As a side effect of this 4K TV and content craze, desktop PC users will also be seeing more ultra HD monitors for more affordable prices. Market research firm NPD DisplaySearch today released a new report showing that ultra HD monitor shipments are set to increase over in the coming years.

    According to the report, ultra HD monitor shipments are forecasted to reach two million this year. This is despite the fact that the overall desktop monitor market is predicted to decline to just 133 million units shipped in 2014. Both of these trends are set to continue into the future, with ultra HD monitors predicted to reach 8% market penetration by the year 2017. Over the same period average sale prices for ultra HD monitors are set to drop, from an estimated $1,347 this year to just $927 in 2017.

    “Increased 4K-class monitor shipment volume will depend on how far and how fast ASPs decline,” said Hidetoshi Himuro, director of PC and IT research at DisplaySearch. “Although manufacturers hope to raise prices for 4K-enabled monitors, price competition has already begun.”

  • HP Unveils New Hybrid Tablet/Notebook

    HP Unveils New Hybrid Tablet/Notebook

    HP has recently shifted its business to focus more on its enterprise software and security offerings but the company still has its foot firmly planted in the PC hardware business. HP is now neck-and-neck with Lenovo for the title of largest notebook brand.

    HP today unveiled two new notebooks, one of which is the type of tablet/notebook hybrid devices that have proved popular with manufacturers over the past year and at this year’s CES. With the consumer market for PCs now turning to tablets, HP is aiming its new notebooks toward the business community.

    The HP Pro x2 410 is HP’s latest 2-in-1 tablet/notebook. The device features an 11.6″ screen that can detach and be used as a tablet. Though HP did not state the resolution of this tablet/screen, the company has referred to it as HD. The tablet/screen also sports cameras on both its front and back sides.

    The HP 350 G1 is the first in a line of products that HP is calling ” budget-friendly” business notebooks. The device is not a hybrid tablet/notebook is being positioned as “affordable” for the small business market. Though low in price, the 350 G1 has the option to add-on features such as a fingerprint scanner or a higher performance Intel processor and AMD graphics processor.

    HP is now selling both the Pro x2 410 and the 350 G1 in the U.S. The company estimates that the notebooks will sell for $899 and $399, respectively.

  • U.S. PC Market May Have “Bottomed Out,” Says Analyst

    For around two years now, the PC market has been in decline. Quarter after quarter PC manufacturers have, as a whole, reported lower shipments and decreasing sales.

    During the final holiday quarter of 2013 PC shipments once again declined as consumers moved toward inexpensive tablets and other mobile devices. Only Chromebooks seem to have caught on with consumers, leaving a bit of hope that manufacturers can find sales through inexpensive, ultramobile notebooks.

    Market research firm Gartner has also weighed in with some mixed news for the PC industry. While the firm confirms yet another quarter of decline for the industry (shipments down nearly 7% to just 82.6 million units), it is also predicting that the worst may be over for PC and notebook manufacturers.

    Gartner believes the tablet and smartphone segments in established markets such as the U.S. could soon become saturated, allowing PC manufacturers to challenge mobile devices with a combination of new features and lower prices. The downside to this is that consumers in emerging markets, where much of the consumer device market’s growth will come over the next few years, may pass over PCs entirely in favor of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

    “Although PC shipments continued to decline in the worldwide market in the fourth quarter, we increasingly believe markets, such as the U.S., have bottomed out as the adjustment to the installed base slows,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Strong growth in tablets continued to negatively impact PC growth in emerging markets. In emerging markets, the first connected device for consumers is most likely a smartphone, and their first computing device is a tablet. As a result, the adoption of PCs in emerging markets will be slower as consumers skip PCs for tablets.”

  • Chomebooks, 2-in-1s to Lead PC Industry in 2014

    The traditional PC industry has been in decline for over two years now, with mobile devices such as tablets eating into sales of desktops and notebooks. PC shipments during last year’s holiday quarter continued to decline, and overall PC shipments were down 10% in 2013.

    To turn sales around, PC manufacturers have tried a variety of gimmicks in the past year, including touchscreen notebooks and hybrid devices. The only thing that seems to have caught on so far are Chromebooks, the ultra-portable, inexpensive notebooks developed around Google’s Chrome OS platform.

    DigiTimes Research today predicted that companies have learned from the previous year and intend to focus more on Chromebooks in the coming year. The publication, based on its observations of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) offerings, is predicting that Chromebook shipments in the coming year rise to around four million – over 100% more Chromebooks than were shipped in 2013. These notebook sales are expected to be led by major brands such as Dell, Asus, Toshiba, and Acer.

    In addition to Chromebooks, DigiTimes sees PC manufacturers heavily pushing so-called 2-in-1 devices. Such notebooks are expected to run two different operating systems (Windows and Android for the most part), with many able to transform into tablet devices for portability.

    The notebook industry has already seen such 2-in-1 offerings from major manufacturers during 2013. Though the devices have yet to catch on with consumers, manufacturers appear to be set on the idea of hybrid notebooks that they believe will curb the rapid market gains that tablets have been enjoying over the past few years.

  • PC Shipments Continued to Decline Over the Holidays

    It’s a brand new year, but the story is largely the same for PC manufacturers. Much like last year, PC shipments continued to decline during the all-important holiday sales quarter.

    Market research firm IDC this week released its PC shipment estimates for the fourth quarter of 2013 and the industry has declined, as expected. The firm estimates that PC shipments during the fourth quarter were down 5.6% from the fourth quarter of 2012 – a significant contraction, though one that doesn’t quite hit IDC’s initial prediction of a 6% shipment decline.

    “The PC market again came in very close to expectations, but unfortunately failed to significantly change the trajectory of growth,” said Loren Loverde, VP of Worldwide PC Trackers at IDC. “Total shipments have now declined for seven consecutive quarters, and even the holiday shopping season was unable to inspire a turn in consumer spending. Although U.S. growth slipped a little in the fourth quarter, other regions all improved, reinforcing our view that growth rates will continue to improve gradually during 2014 despite remaining in negative territory.”

    IDC estimates that PC industry shipments as a whole declined 10% from those seen in 2012. This continuing decline demonstrates just how aggressively the tablet industry is growing and a shift in consumer needs to relatively low-priced mobile devices.

    Though HP did manage to take back its market share lead from Lenovo during the third quarter of 2013, the company saw an over 8% shipment decline during the holiday quarter. Lenovo, on the other hand, saw 9% year-over-year shipment growth and led the PC industry with over 15 million units shipped.

    “In the United States, market leader HP had a difficult quarter, contracting -12.3% year on year as the market slowed following an HP surge in the third quarter,” said Rajani Singh, senior research analyst for Personal Computing at IDC. “However, Asian majors like Lenovo and Samsung achieved strong double-digit growth, driven partly by a modest commercial uptick and partly due to retail acceptance of their emerging product categories, such as Chromebooks.

  • Razer’s Project Christine Brings Modular Design To The PC

    Computers are hard to build, or so says those who have never done it before. Despite the fact that building a computer is no more complex than building a table from IKEA, some consumers just never want to take the plunge. Razer now wants to change that perception by making a completely modular PC.

    Razer announced at CES that it’s working on a new PC called Project Christine. It’s a completely modular PC where each component is housed inside a small module. These modules are then inserted into a central tower and just work. There’s no cable management, no compatibility concerns or any of the other problems that first time PC builders run into.

    “Project Christine is a new concept design that will revolutionize the way users view the traditional PC. This is the first gaming system that is able to keep pace with technology and could allow consumers to never buy another PC, or gaming system, again,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. “We have a history of bringing incredibly innovative concept systems to market and it’s fair to say that Project Christine is a very exciting new prospect for future development.”

    The most exciting thing about Project Christine is how it aims to upend how we traditionally upgrade PCs. PC users will sometimes have to upgrade an entire system just to upgrade a CPU or GPU. With Project Christine, Razer promises a PC where you just have to buy one module when upgrading just one component of the machine.

    Of course, one might argue that the major hurdle standing in the way of PC gaming isn’t the complexity, but rather the cost. That may be true, and Razer isn’t going to help with that one bit. The company makes premium PCs, and Project Christine won’t change this. In fact, everything about Project Christine is going to be super expensive as each module is liquid cooled which allows the CPU and GPU modules to feature overclocked hardware.

    So, when will the public be able to get their hands on Project Christine? At the moment, it’s merely a prototype concept so Razer isn’t even beginning to discuss availability. There’s also no word on price, but it’s not going to be cheap.

    Image via Razer

  • PC Manufacturers Reportedly Cool on 2-in-1 Tablet/PCs

    It appears that, in addition to adding touchscreens to notebooks, PC manufacturers will be betting big on convertible, 2-in-1 tablet/notebook hybrid devices in 2014. Looking ahead to the new year, manufacturers are already ramping up production on convertible devices.

    Despite the increased production on such devices, it remains to be seen whether consumers actually want them. Microsoft’s Surface tablet failed to gain traction in either the tablet or the notebook markets, and other convertible devices have seen limited success as well.

    A new DigiTimes report today shows that manufacturers are almost certainly seeing the same consumer wariness toward convertible devices. The report’s sources state that notebook manufacturers are being “conservative” in regards to 2-in-1 devices.

    Part of the reason, the report points out, is the very restricted verticals for such devices. Peripherals (keyboards, mainly) for convertible tablet/notebooks have to be tailored to the device in question, limiting sales to just the number of the devices sold and tying their success to that of the main product. Those numbers, at this point, make it hard to justify a big investment in a new device ecosystem tied to 2-in-1 notebooks/tablets.

    Even so, the report points out that some component manufacturers are reporting increased orders for convertible notebook projects. It seems that even with reservations, brand manufacturers are plunging ahead, hoping to strike the next big tech market.

  • Tablet Touch Panel Shipments to Slow Next Year

    The tablet industry is only a few years old and is still growing fast. The segment has even managed to eat in to traditional PC sales, sending manufacturers scrambling for ways to make desktops and notebooks new again with features such as touchscreens.

    Though the trend of touchscreen notebooks hasn’t yet resonated with consumers, manufacturers are betting big on the devices. A new DigiTimes Research report today predicts that shipments of touchscreen components for notebooks are set to increase by nearly 23% during 2014, up to more than 17.7 million units.

    This will take place just as touchscreen shipments for tablet devices is set to slow following the industry’s explosive growth. The report predicts that tablet touch panel shipments will drop over 29% to just 51.8 million units shipped. Smartphones are predicted to hold on to their steady growth, with smartphone touch panel shipments set to increase nearly 12% to 242.7 million units.

    An odd twist to these predictions is just how many of these shipments will be lower-cost capacitive film-based touch panels. DigiTimes predicts that a full 64.8% of smartphone touch panels shipped next year will be film-based, and over half of half (52.4%) of the tablet touch panels shipped next year are predicted to use the technology. The film-based touch panels will not hit notebooks in a big way next year, though, with just 1.4% of notebook touch panels predicted to be capacitive film-based.

    (Image courtesy Samsung)

  • Tablet Shipments Beat Out Mobile PCs This Year

    The PC market is declining rapidly, and it is easy to see why. With no compelling reason to upgrade PC hardware, consumers are turning to mobile devices such as tablets for more of their media consumption needs.

    More proof of this was provided today courtesy market research firm Strategy Analytics, which released a new report showing that tablet shipments have now overtaken mobile PC shipments. The report shows that tablet shipments this year will reach an estimated 231 million, far eclipsing the 186 mobile PCs that are expected to have shipped in 2013.

    “The tablet has become firmly ingrained in the consumer mindset, and is now seen as one of the key go-to devices for consumers who want to undertake computing tasks on a mobile device.” said Matt Wilkins, director of tablets and wearables at Strategy Analytics. “As a result, the processors architectures, operating systems, and form factor of the tablet are playing dominant roles in the MCD (mobile computing devices) space”

    Strategy Analytics predicts that the trend toward tablets and away from notebooks will continue for at least the next four years. The report also shows that the real winner in all of this could end up being Google. The company’s Android operating system currently dominates smartphone shipments, and momentum for the platform is building for tablet devices. Strategy Analytics is predicting that over 40% of all mobile devices shipped in 2017 will be running a Google operating system.

  • PC Shipments to Continue Falling Fast

    PC Shipments to Continue Falling Fast

    With iPads firmly at the top of this year’s Black Friday most-wanted lists, PC manufacturers can only look on as the traditional segment continues to contract. PC shipments have been falling for several consecutive quarters and the declines don’t show any signs of slowing.

    Market research firm IDC today predicted that worldwide PC shipments for the year 2013 will decline over 10% from shipments seen in 2012. This is a larger contraction than was predicted even early this year, when PC manufacturers had just endured a dismal holiday 2012 quarter. Shipments for 2014 are expected to contract as well, down another 3.8%. IDC expects the PC market to level off at around 300 million shipments worldwide in the long term.

    “Perhaps the chief concern for future PC demand is a lack of reasons to replace an older system,” said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC. “While IDC research finds that the PC still remains the primary computing device – for example, PCs are used more hours per day than tablets or phones – PC usage is nonetheless declining each year as more devices become available. And despite industry efforts, PC usage has not moved significantly beyond consumption and productivity tasks to differentiate PCs from other devices. As a result, PC lifespans continue to increase, thereby limiting market growth.”

    The consumer market in particular is declining, with consumers flocking to tablet devices for their media and internet consumption needs. IDC predicts a 15% drop in consumer PC shipments for 2013.

    PC shipments to enterprise customers are also declining, but not by nearly as much. IDC sees a 5% decline in enterprise PC shipments for the year 2013. The enterprise market may be buoyed slightly in the coming months by a limited need for some businesses to upgrade their PC infrastructures to newer operating systems from Windows XP, which Microsoft is ending support for in 2014.

  • European PC Market Still in Decline

    European PC Market Still in Decline

    Though global declines in the PC market could have been worse during the third quarter, shipment numbers are still falling quickly. This is especially true in established markets, where tablets have eaten into PC sales for the past two years.

    Market research firm Gartner today released a report showing that European PC shipments during the third quarter were down to 11.9 million – a nearly 13% drop from shipments one year ago. All types of PCs, including desktops, notebooks, and enterprise saw sales decline year-over-year.

    “The PC market in Western Europe continued to shrink, declining faster than expected,” said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The transition from PCs to tablets continued to reduce PC sales. In addition, product transitions to ‘Haswell’ and ‘Bay Trail’ processors, and preparations for the launch of Windows 8.1 and associated new products, meant that vendors were careful about managing inventory and focused on clearing out stock in the distribution channel.”

    HP still leads European PC shipments with 2.6 million units shipped, which is only a small 0.2% drop in its shipments from the third quarter of 2012. Meanwhile, Lenovo is the only major manufacturer besides Dell (which saw 1.1% shipment growth) to actually improve on its shipments. The Chinese company shipped 16.3% more PCs year-over-year to Europe during the third quarter, rising to second place behind HP with nearly 1.5 million units shipped.

    Of particular note is that Acer saw a 28% shipment decline during the third quarter. This no doubt reflects one of the “complicated and harsh challenges” Acer CEO J.T. Wang cited this week as he resigned his position at the company.

  • Acer CEO Resigns, Layoffs Announced

    Acer is one of the top worldwide PC brands, but that hasn’t insulated the company from the recent downturn in the PC market caused by the growth of mobile technologies. Acer this week announced major changes to its executive structure and a restructuring plan that includes massive layoffs.

    Acer Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang has announced he will be stepping down as the company’s CEO. He will also be resigning his chairmanship sometime in June 2014. Acer President Jim Wong will take over the CEO position starting January 1, 2014.

    “Acer encountered many complicated and harsh challenges in the past few years. With the consecutive poor financial results, it is time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to path the way for a new era,” said Wang. “Together with the management team, we have crafted a far-reaching plan for Acer’s transformation. I wish to thank the board members for their support and to Jim for assuming the CEO duties. I feel optimistic toward Acer’s future.”

    In addition to the management changes, Acer has announced its intention to under go a massive restructuring effort. Board member Stan Shih and Acer co-founder George Huang will lead a committee to formulate the restructuring plan, which Acer stated could change its “company vision, strategy, and execution plans.”

    Current restructuring plans include layoffs and product plan terminations. The plan terminations are expected to cost the company $150 million in the upcoming quarter. The layoffs, which are predicted to affect 7% of Acer employees worldwide, are predicted to save the company $100 million per year.

    “After making structural adjustments, we will introduce more competitive products within the existing PC, tablet, and smartphone business and stabilize our market share,” said Shih. “This will be the basis of our transformation and for developing new business opportunities.”

    (Image courtesy Acer)

  • PC Shipments Decline During Back-to-School Season

    As expected, PC shipments declined year-over-year during the third quarter of 2013. According to market research firm Gartner, shipments fell 8.6% from last year to only 80.3 million units. Shipments were up from the previous quarter, boosted by back-to-school sales and new offerings.

    Though the third quarter numbers represent a sixth consecutive quarterly year-over-year decline in PC shipments, top PC brands did manage to see improvement. Lenovo, which overtook HP in market share the previous quarter is still on top, despite predictions that HP will soon retake its lead. Lenovo improved its global shipments to 14.1 million during the third quarter, a 2.8% increase over 2012. HP also improved its global numbers, raising shipments 1.5% to 13.7 million. Dell was the only other major PC manufacturer to improve year-over-year, increasing shipments 1% to 9.3 million.

    “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.”

    U.S. PC shipments actually improved over 2012 with a 3.5% increase to 16.1 overall units shipped during the second quarter. All major brands managed to increase shipments in the U.S. except for Apple, which declined 2.3% to only 2.1 million units. Lenovo saw the largest shipment increase in the U.S., shipping nearly 1.7 million units – a 24.6% increase over its 2012 U.S. shipments.

    “The positive U.S. results could mean that seasonal strength and channel fill for new product launches in 3Q13 finally overcame the structural decline.” said Kitagawa. “Even though 3Q13 shipments were compared with artificially weak 2Q13 because of inventory control for the Windows 8 launch at the time, the 3Q13 results imply the U.S. market may have passed the worst declining stage, which started in 2010. The shrinking installed base of PCs has also passed the steepest decline phase because the structural change has progressed fairly quickly. Tablets will continue to impact the PC market, but the U.S. PC market will see a more moderate decrease rather than a steep decline in the next two years.”

    (Image courtesy Lenovo)

  • PC Makers Betting on Convertible All-in-One Tablets/PCs

    With tablets now taking a big bite out of traditional PC sales, PC manufacturers are looking for a way to tap into the mobile zeitgeist that is leaving them behind. According to a new DigiTimes report, those manufacturers are now betting that convertible all-in-one PCs will be the key to bringing back the PC market. The devices function as tablets, as well as notebook computers.

    The report’s unnamed “sources from the upstream supply chain” are quoted as saying convertible all-in-one PC shipment predictions are being ramped up for the second quarter of 2014. The sources blame this shift on Intel, which is heavily marketing its part in all-in-one Windows-based machines that can also function as portable mega-tablets.

    While current all-in-one offerings from HP, Sony, Lenovo, and Asus run Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform, DigiTimes’ sources believe the coming wave of all-in-ones could be running Google’s Android instead. They are also rumored to be more tablet-like than notebook-like, with manufacturers focusing on apps and content rather than the productivity the notebook aspects of the devices provide.

    This optimism for all-in-ones could be misplaced, as consumers have consistently preferred 7-inch tablets to larger 10-inch versions. An even bigger, heavier tablet-like device in unlikely to change that. Also, consumers did not rush to upgrade to Widows 8 during last holiday season, showing instead apathy toward the touch-friendly interface that was a large part of that OS. As Microsoft has learned with its Surface tablets, consumers don’t seem to want more expensive multipurpose devices.

    (Image courtesy HP)

  • PC Market to Shrink Further This Fall

    PC Market to Shrink Further This Fall

    PC sales during the holiday 2012 quarter disappointed manufacturers, and PC shipments have been declining industry-wide throughout 2013. Those some industry-watchers have predicted sales will pick up as back-to-school shopping ramps up, a new analyst report is continuing to predict falling PC sales throughout the rest of the year.

    IDC this week released estimates showing that global PC shipments are expected to drop by 9.7% year-over-year. PC sales are expected to decline throughout next year, and are not expected to regain the highs seen years ago.

    In addition to the requisite blaming of the rise of mobile phones and tablets as a cause of the decline, the analyst is also predicting a slowdown of PC sales in emerging markets. IDC expects growth in emerging PC markets to slow even faster than in western markets. China in particular is predicted to see “double-digit” year-over-year PC shipment declines by the end of this year. Though PC manufacturers have been relying on these emerging markets to shore up sales in recent years, it seems the tablet and smartphone markets have quickly caught up.

    “The days where one can assume tablet disruptions are purely a first-world problem are over,” said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC. “Advances in PC hardware, such as improvements in the power efficiency of x86 processors remain encouraging, and Windows 8.1 is also expected to address a number of well-documented concerns. However, the current PC usage experience falls short of meeting changing usage patterns that are spreading through all regions, especially as tablet price and performance become ever more attractive.”

  • PC Shipments Are Declining in Europe, Too

    PC Shipments Are Declining in Europe, Too

    It’s clear that PC shipments are declining worldwide, beset by the rise of the tablet market and the failure of Windows 8. This week, one analyst firm is showing a dramatic decline in PC shipments in Western Europe in particular.

    Research firm Gartner this week released numbers estimating that 10.9 million PCs were shipped in Europe during the second quarter of 2013. That’s a 19.8% decline from the 13.6 million units shipped during the same quarter last year. Mirroring the worldwide numbers, Lenovo was the only major PC manufacturer to see its shipments rise year-over-year.

    Numbers for the U.K. in particular were nearly as bad, with shipments down 15% from last year. Gartner pointed out that his is the 11th consecutive quarter where PC shipments have declined in the U.K. France saw its shipments drop 19.1% from last year, and the German market was down 18.7%

    “After several depressing years the PC vendors are now at a make or break point in this industry,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “The product transition involving both hardware and the upgrade of Windows 8.1 needs to reverse the steep declines we have seen in the PC market.”

    Gartner blames this decline on the end of the netbook market and manufacturers clearing inventory for Intel’s new Haswell processors, as well as Microsoft’s upgraded Windows 8.1. The firm does see some hope, though, for the fourth quarter of 2013, when new software and hardware could bring costs down to competitive levels with tablets.

    “We can expect some attractive new PCs in the stores for the fourth quarter of 2013, running Windows 8.1 with thinner form factors and longer battery life enabled by Intel’s Haswell processors,” said Meiki Escherich, principal reserach analyst at Gartner. “These PCs will compete with high-end tablets and will be complemented by a new generation of Atom-based devices that will compete with low-end basic tablets. Although this will not fully compensate for the ongoing PC decline, it does create an opportunity for profit in the midrange and more high end PC segments.”