Negative PC growth expected to hit -10 per cent in 2013

Citi Research has amended its forecast for negative PC growth, voicing growing concerns over the state of the PC market.
Whilst previously predicting year-to-year growth of the PC industry to sit at minus four per cent, Citi has since forecast this decline to sink further, down to minus ten per cent.
148 million desktops were shipped in 2012, but the firm predicts that figure to fall to just 137 million in 2013. Meanwhile, laptops fared worse as 179 million devices are expected to ship this year – a sharp decline from the 201 shipped last year.
The analyst made the forecast, emphasising the damage caused by a "softening in PC end-demand" and "muted benefit from Haswell and Windows Blue".
Even the recent Computex show failed to lift Citi's spirits, as the firm downplayed the value of products unveiled at the show.
"We do not see any meaningful catalysts near-term supported by our product and company meetings at Computex in Taiwan last week which revealed a focus on convertible & higher-end Ultrabooks running Haswell, which addresses the smaller premium notebook market. We also believe investors will be disappointed when they learn that low-priced touch-capable notebooks (sub-$600) will not be available to consumers until 4Q13," read the report by Citi Research.
As expected, Citi moved to address the expected growth for tablets, all be it at the expense of traditional desktop PCs.
The analyst forecast tablet shipments to continue to grow in 2013, up to 237 million for the year – a significant jump on the 144 million shipped in 2012.

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