Stefan Mileschin

While the tech media appears to be banging on about how tablets and smartphones are killing the PC, it seems that the actual figures do not bear this out.

NPD Group has released some figures which indicate that the grey box is still doing pretty well and if tablets and smartphones did not exist then PC makers would be none the wiser.

Last year, the number of PCs sold, which includes both laptops and desktops, increased by 20 percent, while revenues jumped 14 percent. Shipments for the period also increased by 20 percent.

To make matters worse, for those who chant that the iPad and smartphone killed the PC, 2012 will be even better.

NPD Vice President for Industry Analysis Stephen Baker told PC Week that the figures point to a healthy PC market with prices actually going up.

The average selling price for laptop PCs was $764 in 2011, and while that is a five percent drop from 2010 it is still $4 higher than 2009, which was the height of the recession.

Desktops sold for $638, down three percent from 2010 and up $13 from 2009.

Baker said that PC prices are a positive story for computer makers.

The reason this year will be better is because of things like Ultrabooks and Windows 8, which promise to bring to the PC a lot of what makes mobile devices so popular.

It is worthwhile that PC sales should have fallen, along with their price, thanks to the fact that Europeans are not that keen to buy new gear while their economies are down the toilet. If shipments can increase by 20 percent under these conditions, imagine what they would be if the econonomies were sorted.

Of course all these figures fly in the face of what Gartner said recently. Still 90 percent of statistics are fabricated. And 100 percent of microprocessors are fabricated.

http://news.techeye.net/hardware/the...-to-grow-again