Tablets keep gaining on PCs

Tablets keep gaining on PCs

SAN FRANCISCO--Media tablets like Apple Inc.'s iPad and its competitors accounted for one in three personal computer shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a market research firm that lumps tablets into the broader PC category.

While shipments of traditional desktop and notebook PCs have been falling steadily in recent quarters, tablet shipments have been growing at an impressive clip. According to Canalys Ltd., an independent analyst firm, total PC shipments--including tablets--grew 12 in the fourth quarter to reach 134 million units.

Shipments of traditional PCs contracted last year for the first time since 2001 as more consumers opted to buy tablets, which are generally less expensive and better suited for mobile computing.

According to Gartner Inc., which like most research firm tracks tablet and PC sales separately, worldwide PC shipments totaled 90.3 million units in the fourth quarter, down 5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to Mikako Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner, tablets have dramatically changed the landscape for PCs, not just by cannibalizing PC sales but also by prompting PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs.

"Whereas as once we imagined a world in which individual users would have both a PC and a tablet as personal devices, we increasingly suspect that most individuals will shift consumption activity to a personal tablet, and perform creative and administrative tasks on a shared PC," Kitagawa said.



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