Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Preliminary results from the IDC research group (www.idc.com) show that hat the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market increased 2% quarter-on-quarter but declined 12% year-on-year in 2013 Q3 to reach 27.8 million units, 1% lower than IDC’s initial forecasts.

China posted modest gains compared to last quarter on the back of improved commercial spending there, but declines in a few big ASEAN markets and continued weakness in most mature markets offset those gains, keeping the overall region suppressed yet again in Q3.

The global smartphone applications processor market continued to show strength and grew 44 % year-on-year to reach US$4.4 billion in the second quarter of the year (Q2 2013), according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com).

Sixty percent of CEOs believe that the emergence of smart machines capable of absorbing millions of middle-class jobs within 15 years is a “futurist fantasy,” according to Gartner’s 2013 CEO survey. However, Gartner (www.gartner.com) predicts that smart machines will have widespread and deep business impact within only seven years through 2020.