Global PC shipments fell by 14% Y-o-Y in Q1 2013

"Personal-computer shipments plummeted in every region of the world in the first quarter as buyers opted for smartphones and tablet computers and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s newest operating system met with weak demand.
Global PC unit shipments fell 14 percent in the first quarter - the worst such decline on record - to 76.3 million, a bigger drop than the 7.7 percent decline IDC had forecast, the market researcher said in a statement yesterday. The slump was the steepest since IDC began tracking shipments in 1994.
Every PC maker except China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) experienced declines as businesses chose to install Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system on employees’ computers instead of the newer Windows 8, Jay Chou, an analyst at Framingham, Massachusetts- based IDC, said in an interview. Consumers also shunned Windows 8 in favor of smartphones and tablets, which can handle many of the same tasks, he said."

Source:  Bloomberg, 11th April 2013