Desktop PC sales fall as business users turn to tablets

Market watcher Context has reported a 10 per cent year-on-year slump in desktop PC sales to business users during the first two months of Q3.

The analyst house tracked sales of desktop PCs through distribution across Western Europe and blamed the decline on the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets.

Sales of the devices were down by more than 20 per cent in Switzerland and Finland, while the UK, Germany and France suffered single digit declines.

UK PC sales, in particular, were down 3.4 per cent on the same period last year, but were reportedly buoyed by a series of large-scale enterprise purchases towards the end of Q3.

Nausica Rosina, PC market analyst at Context, said desktop PCs are falling out of favour with business users that want to take advantage of mobile working.

"Notebooks now have the same power as most desktop [PCs] while other portable devices, such as smartphones and tablets, continue to offer enterprise users more personalised features via app eco-systems," said Rosina.

Despite the lacklustre performance of the desktop PC market, Rosina predicts that all-in-one devices will become more popular with business users as time goes on.

"All-in-ones take up less space than desktop PCs, are stylish, have come down significantly in price over time and should continue to drive touchscreen adoption in business an element which will be at the core of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8," Rosina concluded.