全球PC市场大滑坡，中国联想成唯一亮点

    首先明确一下，我们在本文中采用五年前的个人电脑（PC）定义，也就是平板电脑出现之前。

    按照这样的定义，PC市场似乎正在崩盘。

    美国国际数据公司（IDC）提供的全球PC市场季度跟踪数据显示，今年第一季度PC发货量比上年同期下降了13.9%，而此前预测的降幅为7.7%。这是1994年该公司开始发布相关数据以来PC市场表现最差的一个季度。

    低端迷你笔记本电脑的发货量跌幅最大，但IDC认为，影响整个PC市场的是“Windows 8遇冷”。微软公司（Microsoft）推出这款产品的目的是适应平板电脑的崛起。IDC副总裁鲍勃•奥康奈在一份公告中指出，Windows 8整合了平板电脑操作系统的一些因素，但“它不仅没有给PC市场带来动力，看起来还阻碍了PC市场的增长。”他指出，Windows 8不仅过于背离消费者对Windows操作系统的预期，而且价格过高。

    Windows 8使“PC成了平板电脑及其他同类产品的一个缺乏吸引力的替代品”。

    数字最能说明情况。惠普（Hewlett-Packard）仍是PC市场龙头，但今年第一季度该公司全球PC发货量同比下降了23%，降幅之大令人咋舌。戴尔（Dell）的全球发货量和美国发货量分别减少了10%和14%。唯一的“好”消息来自联想（Lenovo），它的全球发货量和上年同期持平，美国市场发货量实现了两位数的增长。

    科技新闻与信息网站Ars Technica撰稿人安德鲁•坎宁安认为，联想的不同之处在于消费者认为它稳定而可靠，生产优质PC，而惠普和戴尔则均已陷入困境。戴尔正在进行的私有化重组会让它更多地成为服务供应商，而非硬件制造商——这和IBM曾经的做法异曲同工，后者最终在2005年将PC业务转让给了联想。坎宁安的结论是：“如果一家公司的所作所为表明它可能退出PC市场，消费者和其他企业就会注意到这一点，同时采取相应的行动。”

    不过，鉴于整个PC市场滑坡的速度如此之快，有一点看来很明显，那就是PC基本上正在成为一种纯粹的办公设备。原因是平板电脑和手机已经能满足人们对计算机的大部分要求，比如与他人互动，阅读新闻故事和观看视频。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    Let's say the definition of "PC" is the same one we applied five years ago, before tablets.

    By that definition, the market seems to be collapsing.

    Shipments of PCs in the first quarter fell by 13.9% from the same quarter in 2012. The forecast decline had been 7.7%, according to International Data Corp.'s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. That makes the worst quarter ever tracked by IDC, which started issuing the reports in 1994.

    Mini Notebooks saw the biggest decline on the low end, but the whole market was affected by what IDC calls "weak reception for Windows 8," Microsoft's (MSFT) answer to the rise of the tablet. The operating system that incorporates elements of tablet OS's "not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market but appears to have slowed the market," said IDC's Bob O'Donnell, in a statement. He said Windows 8 is just too radical a departure from what consumers have come to expect from Windows, and too expensive.

    The OS has "made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices."

    The numbers tell the tale. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) still leads the market, but its worldwide shipments fell by a breathtaking 23% from the first quarter of 2012. U.S. shipments fell by about the same rate. Dell (DELL) saw declines of 10% globally and 14% in the United States. About the only "good" news came from Lenovo (LNVGY), where worldwide shipments remained flat, though growth in the U.S. was in the double digits.

    The difference for Lenovo, says Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham, is that consumers believe it to be a solid and reliable supplier of quality PCs, while HP and Dell are both struggling. Dell is in the midst of a restructuring that will take the company private and make it more of a services firm than a hardware company -- similar to what IBM (IBM) did, culminating in the 2005 sale of its PC business to Lenovo. "Consumers and businesses are going to notice and respond when your company acts like it might pull out of the PC market," Cunningham concludes. And Lenovo isn't acting that way.

    Still, with the overall market falling at such a rate, it seems clear that PCs are becoming mainly office-only devices now that people can meet most of their personal-computing needs -- like interacting with people, reading news stories, and watching videos -- on tablets and phones.