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  Date: 03/04/2016

Personal computer still remains a top computing platform

Although there is significant increase in the use of mobile phones and tablet computers, personal computers are still a mainstream computing platform.

The large screen and high performance computing performance by PCs cannot be matched by tablet computers. There are a lot of applications where tablet and smart phone are not proper substitutes for PCs. Except the benefits of better user interface, lightweight and portability, smart phones and tablet computers hardly match the performance of latest notebook computers.

ABI research in its recent study which is titled as "PC Platform is Evolving, Not Dying" explains how the latest Chromebooks and Ultraportable PCs shaping the PC market in 2016.

Most of the people using ordinary Mobile phone to replace with smart phone for its inherent advantages. But a smart phone is not a full replacement for personal computer. Tablet computer is to some extent is a replacement for PC but with limits.

Since much of the users or content viewers/readers, they may not need personal computer most of the time for watching content. Whereas for large size content creators/editors, personal computer is essential.

ABI Research finds that 163 million notebook PCs shipped globally during 2015. The majority of shipments were laptops, which constituted nearly 80% of the category. Based on its research data ABI suggests PC market is still going strong and shows no sign of slowing down in the immediate future.

“Industry experts greatly exaggerated the death of the PC,” says Jeff Orr, Research Director at ABI Research. “The platform is continuing to evolve its designs to provide flexibility for productivity purposes, while also adapting its shape to support tablet-like, touch applications. Chromebooks and ultraportable PCs will continue to drive the most growth within the notebook PC market.”
The trend now in notebook computers according to ABI is ultra-portability.

Further trends shared by ABI includes:

Though ultraportable PCs hit the shelves at premium prices, consumer interest for the 2-in-1 systems is increasing due to the supreme versatility that the models provide. As such, ABI Research predicts that new, low-cost models will emerge from a broader range of system OEMs in 2016 and forecasts ultraportable PCs will constitute more than 24% of total notebook PC unit volume in 2021.

Meanwhile, ABI Research anticipates Chromebooks to continue to dominate the education market in 2016, as school initiatives drive toward 1:1 student deployments with a technology device. And though the majority of Chromebooks historically shipped in the U.S., the education trend is beginning to see growth in other regions, notably Western Europe. ABI Research predicts that Chromebooks will represent nearly 7% of all notebook PC shipments in 2021.

From an operating system standpoint, however, there remains room for further notebook PC development. “Intel architecture powers the majority of notebook PCs, and its introduction of the Core M SoC processor greatly enhanced the number of potential systems manufacturers that can participate in the 2-in-1 market,” concludes Orr. “With ARM processors dominating mobile devices, many in the industry wonder if an ARM-based PC will eventually surface. With no Windows 10 desktop support for ARM processor architecture, only a handful of Chromebooks are using ARM-based processors in their designs. As such, we do not expect ARM-based PCs to emerge during the forecast period.”

In all, data suggests regional growth from the notebook PC category will stem from Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa over the next five years as computing penetration in both the workplace and consumer markets expands.
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N
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