PC Crash Halts; Shipments Stabilize In Q2 According To Gartner, IDC

Demand for personal computers in the second quarter reached its healthiest level since 2012 when the market was disrupted by surging tablet sales and a decline in mini-notebooks, according to two research reports.

International Data Corp said Thursday that worldwide PC shipments fell 1.7 percent to 74.4 million in the second quarter. Gartner on Wednesday put the figure at 75.8 million units -- a 0.1 percent increase from its year-earlier number.

Results suggest a market stabilization following eight quarters of decline, according to researchers.

But IDC's Loren Loverde is cautious about industry prospects.

"We do not see the recent gains as a motive to raise the long-term outlook," Loverde said, adding that 2014 growth could get closer to flat, rather than his earlier projection of a six percent decline.

The better-than-expected second-quater shipments stem from the success of lower-end systems like Chromebooks, as well as a slow-down in tablet growth and upgrades from Windows XP computers, according to IDC.

But Gartner's Mikako Kitagawa said, "it is the underlying business replacement cycle that will stabilize the market.”

Kitagawa believes the big shake-up caused by tablets and smartphones peaked in 2013 and the PC market is stabilizing with a smaller installed base of newer devices.

"Therefore, we expect to see slow, but consistent, PC growth," Kitagawa said.