IHS has recently published a new report that covers the performance of the PC market in the third quarter of the year. And while it does bring some hope for the future of the industry, the year over year plunge in shipment continues.
But there is enough positivity to go around too, a fair amount of it.
Notebook shipments in Q3 2013 are estimated to be in the 47.9 million units range. This translates to an increase of 6 percent compared to the previous quarter. It is, in fact, the second largest sequential growth in the past two years — back in 2011 that the notebook market grew by 7 percent.
The year-over-year decline in shipments, however, continues. Compared with the same period last year, the PC market has witnessed a 9 percent drop.
Nevertheless, Craig Stice, senior principal analyst at IHS explains that even with the overall negative news, PC makers may feel encouraged by the signs and quarter-over-quarter increase:
“However, even with a respite from the sequential decline and a few other hopeful developments, the mobile PC business is still on track to decline for the full year of 2013. This means the notebook market will contract for the second consecutive year, a proposition that once would have been unthinkable for the formerly high-flying mobile PC business.”
Still, the research firm believes there is cause for hope.
Intel released the new Haswell processors, and those combined with its Bay Trial chips will offer incentive enough for users to upgrade and buy newer notebook models. And with the holiday season coming closer, shipments in the fourth quarter may prove to be more crucial than ever.
