500 Million PCs Forecasted To Ship In 2013 On Surging Tablet Sales

What was that we were saying about the “PC market” needing to be redefined to include tablets? More market predictions are out, and this one from Canalys includes tablets in the mix, which paints a different picture of the PC market from one that’s experiencing lagging sales to one that is simply evolving to include a wider breadth of form factors in its sales numbers.

When including tablets, Canalys predicts that the PC market will see 7% year-over-year growth, from 459.6 million in 2012 to 493.1 million--nearly half a billion--in 2013. In 2017, the firm forecasts shipments of PCs to reach 713.8 million.

Dell XPS 11
Dell XPS 11

Driving this bus will be tablets. Last year, Canalys lists desktops with 111 million units shipped, notebooks at 234 million, and tablets at 114.6 million. In 2013, both desktop and notebook shipments will dip to 105 million and 205.6 million, respectively, while tablets will jump to 182.5 million.

Canalys

If Canalys’ predictions for 2017 hold true, the PC landscape will be totally different; tablet shipments will explode to 456.1 million, while desktops and notebooks will drop down to 85.8 million and 171.9 million, respectively.