After the tablet Shock: PC industry rearranged itself - Heise Newsticker

For once accustomed to success, PC industry is a lousy year to end – and 2014 promises little improvement. The advent of smartphones and tablets has shaken the business in the foundations. 2013 at the latest should each have become clear that the business will never run again as before, says Gartner analyst Ranjit Atwal. The market research firm expects this year with a slump in sales of over eight percent and continued decline in the coming year. The best news Atwal has for the industry: in the next twelve months, the low point could be reached, after which they can hope for at least slight growth

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In the peak year of 2011 or over 365 million notebooks and desktop computers were sold. For 2014, Gartner predicts only a paragraph of well 280 million. This is almost a quarter less. The minus is distributed in the industry but unevenly. Who is well placed in business with companies that come through the crisis better. Who is primarily reliant on consumers buy its equipment, was caught hard.

Thus while the sales of the Taiwanese manufacturer Acer and Asus, once with their cheap mini-notebooks of excitement to industry, for each quarter, by 20 or 30 percent. The slowdown of the Netbook Trends erased from large parts of their business. “Next year could be crucial for some vendors,” warns analyst Atwal. Companies are resorting to various recipes to get back on track.

kick grasp with Tablets

Acer moved in November after its highest ever loss of the ripcord. First it was announced that CEO J. T. Wang be replaced by a manager of the second row. Only two weeks later, was his designated successor out of the race, and now the 69-year-old founder Stan Shih jumps without pay, to save his life’s work.

Even with the current number three Dell grabbed one of the founder. Michael Dell spent most of the year so to take back control of the once founded by him in the dorm companies. Together with allied financial investors he offered $ 25 billion to buy the company and take of the stock market. In a takeover battle he won against the billionaire Carl Icahn, who attempted to block the deal. Michael Dell is hoping to shake up the company radically without constant accountability to shareholders. And: Among other things, he wants to venture into business with tablets and smartphones

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Lenovo collects Anxious a

But there are also winners of upheaval, such as Lenovo. The Chinese company, which with the acquisition of the PC business of IBM pushed forward into the top echelon of the industry in 2005, managed this year to dethrone the longtime industry leader Hewlett-Packard. HP had put itself in the foot – the zig-zag course with the only announced and then withdrawn plans to spin-off the PC division unsettled corporate customers. Lenovo collected many of them.

At the same time experimenting the new market leader with fresh forms of tools such as combinations of notebook and tablet or laptop with rotatable screen. “For almost 30 years there were virtually only two classes of devices:. Desk calculator and folding notebooks The new technologies give us much more flexibility,” says Gianfranco Lanci Europe boss. One can also grow in an industry crisis, if you make the right decisions. “However, we are in a fast paced business where you should not afford any mistakes.” Lenovo also experienced in the experiments some of these failures, such as the table tablet Horizon in the size of a TV screen, which was a shop keeper.

By 2015 more tablet computers are likely to be sold than PCs worldwide. According to Gartner analyst Atwal However, the current trend towards smaller tablet screens provides space for a recreation of the PC business. “Many are still a device with a larger display diagonal want to have from 11 or 13 inches.” ( Andrei Sokolov, dpa ) / (dz)