Personal-computer deliveries have slipped for a fifth straight quarter, the lengthiest losing streak documented, as customers continue to prefer touch-screen smartphones and tables for getting online.
Market specialist Gartner Inc. said in a report that second-quarter world wide unit deliveries dropped 10.9% to 76 million. Sales dropped from a year prior in all regions, including a 1.4% tumble in the U.S., Gartner said. IDC, another research company, put the drop at 11.4%, narrower than its 11.7% predicted contraction.
The extended decline provides more evidence that PC producers and suppliers are having a hard time attracting consumers that have opted cheaper tablets for all the computing and Internet access they require. The industry's target of having everyone own a PC is no longer looking feasible, an analyst at Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said.
The smaller decrease in the U.S. though helped ignite some confidence that the PC sector may do far better than some of the most gloomy forecasts for the year.
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