Skip to main content

Steve Jobs’ prophecy could come true, PC sales slump for the fourth year running

HP Z27s with HP Z840 Desktop Workstation
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Maybe Steve Jobs wasn’t so wrong about that whole “post-PC era” thing after all.

For the umpteenth quarter in a row, PC sales around the globe have continued to decline, and the trend doesn’t look to be slowing.

Recommended Videos

According to a recently released report from the International Data Corporation, annual sales of personal computers are estimated to slump again, despite the end of Windows XP support driving a slight spike in purchases at the tail end of 2014.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by -6.2% in 2015,” read the IDC’s report. “This will be the fourth consecutive year of declining volume as the PC market continues to struggle with competition from tablets and smartphones and generally low demand.”

It’s not all doom and gloom however, as IDC analysts expect the upcoming release of the new Windows 10 operating system to momentarily spur a few more consumers to upgrade from their old clunkers to a machine that might be able to more effectively handle the fresh OS.

“Windows 10 should be a significant contributor to the PC market – providing an upgrade path from Windows 7 for commercial users and a range of features boosting convenience and integrating the user experience across platforms.”

The IDC believes this minor jump will only be temporary as we move into the holiday season, however, as consumers will continue to prioritize mobile devices – namely phones, tablets, and smartwatches like the Apple Watch – over standard desktops or laptops brandishing the Windows logo.

It’s hard to say if the PC market will ever truly recover from the impact of the mobile revolution, but here’s to hoping that 2016 is the year that personal computing finally makes its comeback.

Chris Stobing
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Self-proclaimed geek and nerd extraordinaire, Chris Stobing is a writer and blogger from the heart of Silicon Valley. Raised…
This gaming PC with an RTX 4060 is on sale for $1,000 today
The iBuyPower Trace 7 on a white background.

Best Buy often has some great gaming PC deals, with one highlight available today: Right now, you can buy the iBuyPower Trace 7 gaming PC for $1,000 instead of $1,300. The PC includes the RTX 4060 GPU, so it’s ideal for mid-range gaming. It even comes with a keyboard and mouse, so you only need to make sure you have a screen to add to it. If you’re looking to upgrade your gaming PC for less, here’s what it has to offer.

Why you should buy the iBuyPower Trace 7
You won’t see anything from iBuyPower in our look at the best gaming PCs, but don’t let that discourage you. This is still a good option for those on a budget. This particular model has great hardware for the price. It has an AMD Ryzen 7 5700 CPU teamed up with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. More pivotal for a gaming PC is its graphics card: a GeForce RTX 4060 with 8GB of VRAM.

Read more
Google’s new Agent will power Mercedes’ next in-car AI assistant
The Mercedes MBUX

Google Cloud released its new Automotive AI Agent on Monday and has named the Mercedes-Benz CLA as the first car model to offer it later this year. The Agent will enable Mercedes' MBUX Virtual Assistant to perform a wider array of conversational functions with the vehicle's passengers.

We got our first look at Mercedes' next generation assistant a year ago, at CES 2024, though the company did not reveal which large language model underpinned its capabilities at the time. This new assistant differs from the existing MBUX that can activate around two dozen in-car commands and provide information sourced from ChatGPT and Bing. While the current generation assistant can be activated by stating "Hey, Mercedes," it functions more like Siri or Google Assistant than ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, offering static responses rather than conversational replies.

Read more
Nvidia CPUs might be coming to laptops sooner than we thought
Lenovo Yoga 7 14 Gen 9 tent mode showing display and hinge.

Semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia is gearing up to be one of the major chip suppliers for AI PCs in 2025, with an upcoming system on a chip (SoC) set to be featured in a Lenovo laptop that could be announced by the middle of the year.

The company made its first run at the CPU market with Project Digits, a desktop PC that can run ChatGPT locally. But it may be breaking into some more consumer-focused markets soon, too.

Read more