Gaming laptops, Chromebooks, and convertibles are keeping the PC market afloat

Global analytical firm Canalys has made public its market predictions for 2018 and the results aren't very surprising. Worldwide shipment of both tablets and PCs this year are expected to decline by 2.1 percent YoY to 398 million units. If true, 2018 would be the smallest decline in the PC and tablet space after years of sharp drops.

Canalys is crediting the relatively stable market to both an attractive hardware cycle from top PC vendors and their growing focus on delivering more gaming PCs, Chromebooks, and convertibles. These sub-categories in particular have been steadily growing while sales of traditional laptops and Ultrabooks have been stagnant. Meanwhile on the commercial side, the source is claiming that more companies are finally migrating to Windows 10 and thus contributing to overall growth.

The traditional tablet market is still under immense pressure as consumers are continuing to favor smartphones as their primary mobile devices and either laptops or desktops for high-performance tasks. Canalys is expecting tablet sales to contract by almost 3 percent every year from now until 2022. If so, this would mean 150 million fewer tablets shipped worldwide compared to the market high in 2013.

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