The mobile PC market had the worst Q2 in 11...

in Q2 from the first three months of 2013, the research company said Wednesday. That marked the first time the industry experienced a quarter-over-quarter decline in the category since Q2 of 2002, it said. At that time, mobile PC shipments slid 3.7 percent after the “dot.com bust flattened global demand,” it said. Since then, the mobile PC space has “always strengthened” in Q2 as shipments “recovered from a normally soft start” to the year, it said. Excluding 2002 and this year, growth in each Q2 between 2002 and 2013 ranged from 0.5 percent to 6.5 percent, it said. The first half of 2013 had the weakest performance since 2003, with an 11.2 percent decline compared to the same six-month period a year ago, it also said. In stark contrast, mobile PC shipments soared 41.7 percent in the first half of 2010, it said. The mobile PC industry is “struggling to find any momentum for growth as upheavals rock the market,” Craig Stice, IHS senior principal analyst-compute platforms, said in a news release. “In particular, more nimble devices like media tablets have taken over among consumers given their ease of use and unique form factor,” he said. At the same time, “innovation in PCs has stagnated, and the recent influx of low-cost tablets has further eaten into an already decimated mobile PC space,” he said. “With such dire numbers, many are wondering whether this signifies the start of more record declines for mobile PCs, or if the industry has hit rock-bottom,” he said. However, what “could save the market” is an “infusion of lower-cost PCs that deliver higher performance but consume less power” than today’s laptops, said IHS. Processors including Intel’s Bay Trail and Temash from Advanced Micro Devices can “go beyond what traditional entry-level processors have been able to provide, and PC makers are contemplating a new class of performance PCs that would incorporate the new processors at affordable prices,” said IHS. “Hopes also remain alive within the industry on prospects for the much more expensive” ultrathin and Ultrabook PC models, where “growth could still be expected if their prices come down and if consumers can get used to” Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system after a “rocky launch,” said IHS. A PC “refresh buying cycle is more than likely to occur,” it predicted. “Despite the broad appeal” of media tablets, those devices “won’t be able to fully replace PCs, and consumers will continue to need the computational power of personal computers,” said Stice. “If a new low-cost PC offering strong performance can become available on the market and meet consumer expectations, then PCs could be set for more growth -- not like the glory days of the 2000s -- but growth nonetheless,” he said. Despite that, 2013 is “very likely a write-off at this point,” said IHS. Even with the growth that’s expected in the back half, it’s “too late given the depressed” first-half results for “any positive expansion” to happen in the mobile PC and overall PC markets, it said. Total PC shipments are expected to decline in 2013, the second straight year that’s happened, it said. Last year’s decline was the first since 2001.