Gartner today released their Worldwide PC shipments report which revealed that total shipments were 75.8 million units in the second quarter of 2014, a 0.1 percent increase from the second quarter of 2013. This should be a good news for OEMs as PC shipments have increased after eight quarters of declining shipments. This is due to the stabilization in developed markets was offset by a decline in emerging markets. “The PC market’s installed based has been declining as buyers switched to tablets and smartphones for entertainment and social media consumption. The 2Q14 results suggest that the consumer installed base restructuring peaked during 2013. We are seeing a slowdown in premium tablet sales, which have already penetrated a large number of households. PCs are now growing off a smaller installed base of newer devices, with more engaged users. Therefore, we expect to see slow, but consistent, PC growth. While the end of support for Windows XP drove some of the sales in developed markets, it is the underlying business replacement cycle...

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