The PC: down but not out

Industry watchers IDC and Gartner, both came out with their surveys of the global personal computer market last week. Both found that the PC business continues to shrink. Some 260 - 270 million units were shipped in 2016, which is about 6 percent down from the previous year. Lenovo, HP and Dell are the top three sellers, with Apple trailing at no. 4. But there are some bright spots in this scenario of doom and gloom. Asia is a relatively stable market—and inspite of demonetization stifling demand in India, things are picking up again.

Here, the PC is not dead—it has just assumed new avatars. Customers are asking for innovations in design—like better OLED displays, dual screens, detachable screens, convertibles, all-in-ones—and of course, touch. PC makers are learning to chop up the market with products for niche users. In 2017, we can expect to see some compelling offers of PCs that inhabit a new trishanku world between notebook and tablet. There is another PC market—mostly at the portable end, that will never die: the lean, mean, games machine. You and I play games on our phones for 'time pass'. Hard core gamers, forsake such small screens and demand nothing less than 15 inches when it comes to competitive gaming. The PC is dead, did someone say? Long live the New PC!

The world's number one PC seller, Lenovo, came out with its own suggestions of PC directions in 2017. It says:
Millennials are spending more, not less, time with their PCs than before. Studies indicate that the average time spent on a PC has gone up by 12 minutes since 2012. In addition, consumers are spending twice as much time watching movies and TV shows on PCs rather than tablets and smartphones combined.

As consumers become creators, consumers and sharers of content, display innovations will be a key feature that will drive customer satisfaction. Lenovo implemented these features in products such as the ThinkPad X1 Yoga’s optional OLED display; the Yoga 910’s near-edgeless 4K display; the Yoga Book featuring pen-based input, dual screen and a Halo Keyboard; as well as the Lenovo Y27g Curved Gaming Monitor.

Asus whose Republic of Games series is a leading brand of gaming PCs has tied up with NVIDIA for new VR-ready graphics cards and processors under the hood.

Indian companies like iBall, Micromax and Smartron have launched compellingly priced convertible models which can be used as laptop or tablet.

Against this backdrop, there will be plenty to look forward to in the personal computing space in 2017:

AR/VR Gaming – The Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality gaming space is projected to explode as a trend in 2017. With over 50 different headsets displayed at CES 2017, gaming systems are set to dominate the PC market. These technologies will grow beyond the PC gaming world as new uses are discovered for the technologies.
Display Innovations – Thanks to growing consumer interest for AR/VR gaming, display innovations will fast track to growing PC trends. Last year, Lenovo pioneered curved gaming monitors. Laptops now come with 4K displays.
Versatility in Laptops and Tablets – In a recent report, IDC forecasts that detachable can be considered as a PC replacement in the commercial space, with the detachable category expected to account for 31 percent of the tablet market by 2020, an increase from its current market share of 16 percent. 2017 will see an abundance of convertible and detachable devices on the market as portability and versatility remain top of mind for PC users.
Extended PC Lifecycles --– In the commercial space, analysts forecast PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS) will help PC vendors transform transactional PC sales into longer-term and more profitable engagements by expanding their services portfolios bundled with PC sales. IDC surveyed IT buyers across a range of company sizes and found that almost half of respondents said they engaged in the past 12 months or are considering engaging in the next 12 months in PCaaS.