The International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasted that shipments of PCs will be overrun by tablets' by the fourth quarter this year.
The forecast for PC performance was lowered by at least 10 percent for the whole year of 2013 emphasizing the imminent dominance of tablet deliveries in the coming fourth quarter. And by end of 2015, tablets will overrun PC sales completely.
The cannibalization of PC sales by tablets has been going on for a few years now. IDC analyst Bob O'Donnel said that those smartphones that are more than five inches and sometimes referred to as phablets will soon begin to eat the market shares from smaller sized tablets, whose sizes are usually from 7-8 inches.
IDC had also decreased its shipment outlook for tablets by one percent owing to the emerging phablet and other wearable smart devices.
Further the marketing research firm forecasts that all types of smart and interactive devices such as tablets, phablets, smart phones and also PCs will have a growth of 10.6 percent this year. However that growth rate will fall to 3.1 percent by 2017 because of the emerging less expensive smartphones and tablets.
This value shift in the market for computing devices is making great changes in the game in the technology arena. Apple, Google, and Samsung are notably thriving as winners in the industry. However the established PC manufacturers including Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corp and Microsoft have been struggling in the game with stagnant PC sales.
While the mobile device industry is reaching maturity, price competition is becoming more intense. According to IDC, lower priced models are now getting more popularity. Those tablets and smart phones priced lower than $350 will make up 68 percent of shipments. This will soon change the average retail prices of gadgets to $323 per unit by 2017 compared from the $462 in 2012.
Smartphone shipments will increase to 1.7 billion by 2017 and tablets will increase to 406.8 million. On the other hand, PCs will fall to 123.1 million but laptops will grow to 796.6 million in the same year.
