PC sales drop for first time in five years

The 2012 holiday season wasn't a good one for PC retailers and manufacturers. For the first time in five years sales of PCs and notebooks were down on the previous year, according to new analysis from IDC and the NPD Group.

by Helen Leggatt

Windows 8 may have launched, but that did little to boost sales of PCs over the holiday season. IDC have just released figures showing that while 90 million units were sold, those sales were 6.4% lower in 2012 than the previous year, worse than the forecast decline of 4.4%

"Although the third quarter was focused on the clearing of Windows 7 inventory, preliminary research indicates the clearance did not significantly boost the uptake of Windows 8 systems in Q4," said Jay Chou, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

Figures released this week by NPD Group show PC notebook sales were also down - by 11% compared to 2011.

"Despite the hype, and hope, around the launch of Windows 8, the new operating system did little to boost holiday sales or improve the year-long Windows notebook sales decline," said Steven Baker of the NPD Group.