In the fourth quarter of 2012, PC sales declined during a holiday season for the first time in five years. Even PC makers were complaining of slow Windows 8 PC sales. According to DigiTimes, if a newly published report is to be believed, PC sales aren’t going to shoot through the roof anytime soon. In fact, Taiwanese suppliers are saying that they’re not going to be marginally good for quite some time.
The Taiwan-based suppliers are apparently expecting mediocre sales at least until mid-2013, after which they expect sales to pick up again later in the year after Intel releases the Haswell processor. They believe most consumers aren’t exactly looking to get a new laptop or desktop anytime soon – not everybody needs more than one computer after all, and it’s not like you need to replace your computer frequently. Most people can wait for the next generation of laptops and desktops equipped with Haswell processors, which might just be the beginning of the rebirth that the PC market has been waiting for. The possible introduction of Windows Blue in the third quarter of 2013 could also lead to an increase in sales, the report says.
In addition to expecting poor market performance for half of the year, the suppliers are also reportedly gearing up for the second quarter of 2013, which they expect will be worse in terms of sales than the first quarter.