According to the latest projections from analyst Rob Cihra with Evercore Partners, 2012 is going to be a rough year for PC sales.
While the number of iPads sold this year may approach 70 million units, Cihra says PC sales will end up flat for 2012 and likely down markedly for the last quarter.
On Monday, Cihra cut his projected PC sales for 2012, noting that traditional computer sales will fall and may end up 4 percent lower for 2012 than they were in 2011.
So what’s behind the sustained freefall? The ongoing consumer love affair with tablet computers, but chiefly the iPad – which will control 60% of the entire global tablet market by the close of this year.
“PCs now need to compete both directly/functionally and more so indirectly (for discretionary spend/mindshare) against ‘thin client’ architectures/ecosystems,” Cihra told investors Monday.
Ahead of next week’s earnings report from Apple, the analyst estimates that Apple sold 16.5 million iPad units in the June quarter. If so, that would represent a 78 percent year-over-year increase in sales.