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I've often pegged the hybrid PC as the future of the PC, and here of course Microsoft and Windows do make a relatively strong showing. And in 2015, even standard tablets-which some called media tablets-will outsell the PC. ![]() But when you add in 40 million hybrid PCs, that combined market surges ahead of the traditional PC. In 2014, Gartner expects hardware makers to sell 263 million tablets, a bit lower than the expected 278 million traditional PCs that will be sold. In 2013, even a diminished PC market that sold about 300 million PCs outperformed tablets, at 180 million units, and hybrid PCs, at about 17 million units. Smart phones long ago surpassed PC sales and usage, but tablets and so-called hybrid-PCs-tablets with a clamshell or transforming form factor-are perhaps more obviously directly competitive with traditional, non-touch PCs. PCWORLD BEST SYSTEM IMAGE TOOLS WINDOWS 7 FREE ANDROIDRelated to this surge in Android devices, of course, is the popularity of non-PC devices. ![]() And sales of Android devices will surpass one billion units in calendar 2014, an amazing milestone. Both Window and Mac/iOS become in effect secondary platforms, with Android driving three times the unit sales of either. In short, Android will account for almost 50 percent of all personal computing devices sold within the next two years, and while Apple's platforms don't quite overtake Windows, they will come pretty close. In 2015, Windows hits 16 percent, with Android at 48 percent and Mac/iOS at 15 percent. PCWORLD BEST SYSTEM IMAGE TOOLS WINDOWS 7 FREE FOR ANDROIDHow bad will it get? According to the latest figures from Gartner, Windows will account for 18.6 percent of the overall personal computing market in 2014, compared to 44.5 percent for Android and 13.9 percent for Mac/iOS. And since PC sales are going down each year, Windows's overall share of the market will keep dropping. And while sales of Windows on non-PC devices are expected to rise over the next few years, that increase will occur much more slowly than will the rate for Android and iOS devices. PCWORLD BEST SYSTEM IMAGE TOOLS WINDOWS 7 FREE PLUSIf you examine the sales of all of these devices together-a market we might describe as "personal computing devices"-Windows accounted for only about 14 percent of that market in 2013, compared to 38 percent for Android and 11.6 percent for Apple platforms (Mac plus iOS). In 2013, Android accounted for over 80 percent of all smart phones sold and about 65 percent of all tablets. These markets are dominated by Android, which many have described as the Windows of the device world. This is a problem because while Microsoft's Windows has long dominated the PC market, it has found little foothold in tablets or smart phones. Post-PC World: Smart Phones, Tablets, and PCs And it's only a matter of time before tablet usage surpasses that of PCs as well. While arguments could be made for either term, the simple truth is this: Sometime soon, potentially this year, PCs will be the slowest-selling of these three mainstream computing device types. Microsoft has countered this claim, which was made famous by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, by asserting that we're actually in a "PC-plus era," one in which PCs are used alongside other digital devices such as tablets and smart phones. That we're in a "post-PC" world is of course a matter of semantics. What is Microsoft's role in this post-PC world? And how will the changes that are rocking personal computing affect those who have historically relied on Windows and Microsoft for their livelihoods? Increasingly irrelevant in personal computing, the firm must find its way in what many are calling the post-PC world. Heading into 2014, Microsoft faces a more difficult competitive landscape than it has since Windows rose to prominence over 20 years ago. ![]()
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