Ultrabooks such as the Asus x21 are said to boost PC sales this year as competition grows in the tablet market.
According to Gartner Inc., PC shipments are expected to grow 4.4 percent over last year. That would total the number of units sold worldwide to 368 million.
The rise of ultrabooks in 2012 is said to be the main drive in sales as the year proceeds.
Consumers are more likely to pick up the super-light, super thin notebooks with the new promises of higher performance.
“PC shipments will remain weak in 2012,” said Ranjit Atwal, a research director at Gartner, in a prepared statement. “The real question is whether Windows 8 and ultrabooks will create the compelling offering that gets the earlier adopter of devices excited about PC again.”
Windows 8 is set to launch later this year. The new OS by Microsoft will feature a style reminiscent of tablets rather than traditional PC’s, prompting the company to unify its mobile phone services with its PC users.
However, these same tablets are said to be bringing the majority of the competition to the PC market. Atwal said that the PC market will need to play “catch up in bringing a new level of innovation that consumers want to see in the devices they purchase.”
Forbes reports that Apple Inc. remains the fastest growing PC vendor in the US while Lenovo is the fastest growing vendor in the world. Nonetheless, the top stop in both US and worldwide is held by Hewlett-Packard Co.
Sales of PC’s are said to reach more than 400 million by the end of 2013.
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