PC Sales Slump As The Market Holds Its Breath For Windows 8

PC consumers seem to have gone in to a collective hibernation as they wait for the arrival of Microsoft’s latest OS Windows 8.

Windows 8 And Tablets Take Toll On PC Market

If you are a PC buyer on the market right now, chances are that you have decided to wait it out till Windows 8 hits. Or you might have decided to spend half the money and go for a tablet, putting off buying a whole new PC for later.

You are by no means alone in such a decision if you have indeed taken either of the two. The global PC sales showed a large slump in sales in the previous quarter, with the trend pointing downwards. The blame is being placed on tablets and the impending Windows 8 release. Buyers are either settling to replace their PCs with the more portable and cheaper tablets or are putting off buying entirely till Windows 8 comes out.

The 0.1% fall in global shipments might not look like much but then when you scale it up to the billions that it accounts for, the fall is quite a bit. And it is far more pronounced at the Windows 8 Ground Zero in the United States where the shipments fell a drastic 10.6%, as per the data released by analysts at IDC.

Now that the Windows 8 release date is official, customers are far more likely to wait it out instead of investing. IDC researcher Jay Chou called for a “broader” communication regarding the new features of the OS as well as compatibility and upgrade features to help the market along through this slump.

Microsoft has so far only mentioned that Windows 8 will ship in October with the OS being released to manufacturers in August. But there are no specific dates to be relied upon so far.