The growing mobile stack (and shrinking PC)

Friday, September 9th, 2011 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor

Two quarters ago, we talked about the “Mobile Stack” – the trio of devices that were becoming the toolbox for the mobile worker.

Blame the iPad for Slow PC Sales in the NYTimes discussed the recent Gartner forecast for slowing PC shipments. George Shiffler, research director at Gartner said, “Vendors’ tried and true business models are failing as traditional PC functionality is extended to other devices, and users continue to lengthen PC lifetimes.”

As we discovered in our Q2 Mobile Workforce Report, tablets started to take the lead with certain tasks, such as content consumption, for mobile workers using all three devices.

Although the economic outlook has dampened forecasts, in Are Tablets Taking the Place of PCs?, the WSJ reported that “..meanwhile Mark Moskowitz, a JP Morgan analyst, boosted his tablet sales forecast by 13% from 46.1 million to 51.9 million units sold by the end of the year.”

Morowitcz also expected Apple’s iPad to account for 70% of sales. “In our view, smartphones and tablets are hurting PC growth, as consumers are being distracted by the array of higher-capability device options available”

Tags: iPad, tablet