2011 : The year smartphones beat PCs

Smartphones and tablets together have ushered us in to a new era of computing. The era where we live with our computing devices all the time. Our computing devices are integral part of our body and are almost a prosthetic part. Smartphones with dual core processors, 4 inch screens and 1 GB RAM’s would beat the PC’s of yester years by miles. Smartphone is a powerful computer in the pocket which is limited only by the apps which it can run. When will this little computer replace the bigger and bulkier one? The answer is, right now.

The year 2011 is the year when the personal computer takes a back seat and makes way for smartphones and tablets. Smartphone and tablet shipments are set to exceed PC shipments in the year 2011.

2010 is the year when smartphones started to threaten PC shipments. 2011 is the year when the inevitable happens. Smartphones + tablets together will overtake PC shipments by quite some margin.  There will be 375,000 MM PC’s shipped in year 2011, while  480, 000 MM smartphones and tablets will be shipped during the same period. The difference in shipments will continue to expand in to 2013. From year 2011 to year 2013, the shipments are projections.

Now before we jump into the tablets are eating PC market share, let’s take a close look at the chart. PC’s continue to grow but the growth is slowing down. 2014 projections would be interesting to watch but until then no body isn’t eating anybody. There are chances that people owning PC’s also own tablets and smartphones and vice versa. Besides many smartphones and tablets look to PC as big brother for all the infrastructure needs.

One might jump ship and add Tablets to PC category and call them Tablet PC’s. Even then the ultra mobile smartphone would still trump the PC’s. For year 2011, they would remain neck and neck, beating the PC category in 2012 by a decent margin.

Source : Forbes