IDC: Tablets will conquer notebooks this year, surpass total PC market in 2015

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Worldwide tablet shipments will grow by more than 58 percent this year, surpassing shipments of portable PCs for the first time, according to new projections released this morning by IDC. The research firm says tablets will reach 332 million units by 2015, exceeding the total PC market. The projections are the latest sign of the… Read More…

Amazon’s Kindle Fire dips back below 4% market share

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Maybe the Kindle Fire really is the “fruitcake of tablets.” Worldwide market share for Amazon’s family of tablets dropped to 3.7 percent in the first quarter, according to new data from the IDC research firm, which says the Kindle Fire was the “victim of a highly seasonal product cycle.” In other words, lots of people are… Read More…

Key analysts downgrade Microsoft stock as traditional PC market struggles

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Two influential analysts downgraded Microsoft’s shares this morning, another blow to the Redmond company as it struggles to gain traction in smartphones and tablets, and feels the impact of slumping computer shipments. Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini downgraded Microsoft to “sell” from her previous rating of “neutral.” Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund, meanwhile, downgraded the shares… Read More…

Largely irrelevant? Here’s what IDC says on Windows 8

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A line about Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 from an IDC report is getting lots of attention this week for predicting that the upcoming operating system will be “largely irrelevant” to users of traditional PCs. There’s always a risk with these things that the full context of the quote can get lost in translation, so we went… Read More…

Windows 7 hits 350 million: Putting the data in perspective

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Microsoft this morning announced that Windows 7 has reached 350 million licenses sold in 18 months on the market. It’s an impressive number on the surface, but absent any other context it’s hard to get a sense for what the number actually means. Here’s my best attempt to put it in perspective based on some… Read More…

Revenge of the iPad? PC market tanks in first quarter

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New numbers this afternoon from the IDC research firm show worldwide PC shipments falling 3.2% during the first quarter — the first year-over-year quarterly decline since the end of the Great Recession. The firm had previously expected 1.5% growth in the worldwide market. The picture was even worse in the U.S., where shipments were down… Read More…