PC sales certainly haven't been good over the past year or so, but this past quarter was record-setting bad.

Shipments of PCs fell 14% worldwide last quarter, according to IDC. It was the worst yearly decline since IDC began tracking the data in 1994.

The drop in PC shipments was nearly twice as bad as the 7.7% decline IDC expected, and it marked the fourth consecutive quarter in which PC shipments fell year-over-year.

Gartner, another technology consultancy, posted similar figures on Wednesday. The analysis firm said 79 million PCs were shipped worldwide in the first quarter -- the fewest number of shipments since the second quarter of 2009.

PC industry titans have tried to innovate themselves out of their sales slump, but recent attempts have failed. Ultrabooks, super-thin notebook computers, debuted to great fanfare in 2011. But sales disappointed, and firms quickly slashed their ultrabook sales forecasts.

In October 2012, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) debuted Windows 8, which received mixed reviews, and sales have been muted compared with past Windows launches.

Bob O'Donnell, a vice president at IDC, said in the company's report that "the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market."

He slammed WIndows 8's "radical changes" to the user interface, particularly the removal of the iconic start button, and intimated that the switch is confusing for customers.

"Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market," O'Donnell said in the report.

Microsoft and its rivals felt the crunch in after-hours trading. Microsoft's shares fell 1.3%, while Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) were down about 1.7%. Dell (DELL, Fortune 500), which is planning to go private after a dismal few quarters, remained flat. 

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/10/technology/pc-sales/index.html

Sorry if this is the wrong section for the thread.

Is this just Windows PCs?

Be interested in seeing the sales of Mac, Chromebook, Linux as well.

I think so.

Does Mac even sell that much to make a difference?

I remember when Windows 8 was supposed to turn this around.

Guess what? Windows isn't the problem here.

The information on mac sales may be up 7.4% or down since there are conflicting reports.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57578966-37/apples-q1-mac-numbers-were-either-very-good-or-terrible/

Recently the trend has been for Mac to be more or less stagnant, but this quarter is probably up due to pent up demand for new iMacs.

ChromeOS and Linux are pretty much rounding errors.

edit: LOL, Mac estimates are all over the place, from down 7% to up 14%. 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57578966-37/apples-q1-mac-numbers-were-either-very-good-or-terrible/

Prediction: Soon, PC market analysts will wait until after Apple financials just like smartphone analysts.

Doesn't help that even a 5 year old PC with a half-decent graphics card can run everything out now.
What's the point in upgrading to a new machine if the old one can do everything? Not just talking games either, you would be surprised how many people just use their PC for facebook and that's all, any PC can handle that.

Plus, much of the developed world are still having a financial slump, it's a tough break plonking down dough for a new expensive PC when Android Tablets and Phones are cheap and readily available pretty much everywhere.

I think we really need to see some new "Killer-Apps" for people to be driven back to the platform and give incentive to people wanting to upgrade to something new, PC gamers are about to get that break in the next year or two as the consoles get a long-needed boost in graphical fidelity which should place higher demands on PC hardware.

Good.

Continuing to move away from PC. The future is now!

Please tell me you don't mean consoles/phones or macs as the future, be ause in either of three scenarios, I dont want to live on this planet if that's the future.

most home users are fine with a 8 year old PC or a tablet these days. Most users just browse the net check emails and maybe manage some photo or music they really don't need a new PC. Those people that may have had a laptop in addition to a desktop for travel etc most can make do with a tablet or even smart phone these days. Also the economic slump also means that businesses are less likely to be expanding or replacing a large amount of computers.