But rumors of the PC industry's death have, of course, been greatly exaggerated. Yes, it's a mature market -- but what that means is that a whopping 82% of U.S. households own one PC. Nearly half own more than one. Amazingly, a quarter of Americans have three PCs or more at home. There may be a move away from the humble desktop, but it's toward laptops as much as -- if not more than -- toward tablets. Windows 7 sold 400 million copies in a year, dwarfing the iPad's success. And while the younger generation may be synonymous with smartphone usage -- what self-respecting teen doesn't show his off in public? -- when they get home, they too are predominately PC users.
In short, PC ownership is a very hard thing to kill, and that state of affairs is not going to change any time soon. As Mashable 's Todd Wasserman opined last month: "If anything, the end-of-an-era pronouncements say more about the tech blogosphere’s skewed perspective than anything else." Here are some of the major takeaways from a recent report by Mintel on the PC space:
Ownership is Near Universal
Windows Still Dominates in Software ...
... As Does Dell in Hardware
Laptops Are Booming, Desktops Are Hard to Kill
More People are Buying PCs in Person
Teens Prefer PCs to Smartphones at Home ...
... And Do Just About Everything With PCs
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