Evan ThomasFor the humble PC, 2013 was not a good year. Preliminary numbers from analysis firm Gartner show the PC's market share continued its skid for the seventh straight quarter.
In the last quarter of 2013, PCs shipped 82.6 million units for a decline of 6.9 percent from the same time in 2012.
This gave PCs a yearly shipment total of 315.9 million units — down 10 percent year over year, and officially the worst decline Gartner has seen since it started watching these numbers.
Of the big five computer makers, only Lenovo and Dell grew their businesses — The Next Web says Lenovo saw strong growth across all of its markets, except for the Asia-Pacific region.
And Dell was probably helped when it went private in a $25 billion deal last October. The company says it plans to focus its efforts on the enterprise and developing markets.
But these manufacturers are bucking a trend that's been picking up steam for years. ZDNet quotes a Gartner analyst:
"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."
That said, as The Register points out, "Gartner analysts believe this to be rock bottom for the market and that many markets will have nowhere to go but up."
One manufacturer conspicuously missing from the bad news? Apple. According to Gartner's numbers Apple's shipments were up 28.5 percent on the quarter.
