????首先明確一下，我們在本文中采用五年前的個人電腦（PC）定義，也就是平板電腦出現之前。

????按照這樣的定義，PC市場似乎正在崩盤。

????美國國際數據公司（IDC）提供的全球PC市場季度跟蹤數據顯示，今年第一季度PC發貨量比上年同期下降了13.9%，而此前預測的降幅為7.7%。這是1994年該公司開始發布相關數據以來PC市場表現最差的一個季度。

????低端迷你筆記本電腦的發貨量跌幅最大，但IDC認為，影響整個PC市場的是“Windows 8遇冷”。微軟公司（Microsoft）推出這款產品的目的是適應平板電腦的崛起。IDC副總裁鮑勃?奧康奈在一份公告中指出，Windows 8整合了平板電腦操作系統的一些因素，但“它不僅沒有給PC市場帶來動力，看起來還阻礙了PC市場的增長。”他指出，Windows 8不僅過于背離消費者對Windows操作系統的預期，而且價格過高。

????Windows 8使“PC成了平板電腦及其他同類產品的一個缺乏吸引力的替代品”。

????數字最能說明情況。惠普（Hewlett-Packard）仍是PC市場龍頭，但今年第一季度該公司全球PC發貨量同比下降了23%，降幅之大令人咋舌。戴爾（Dell）的全球發貨量和美國發貨量分別減少了10%和14%。唯一的“好”消息來自聯想（Lenovo），它的全球發貨量和上年同期持平，美國市場發貨量實現了兩位數的增長。

????科技新聞與信息網站Ars Technica撰稿人安德魯?坎寧安認為，聯想的不同之處在于消費者認為它穩定而可靠，生產優質PC，而惠普和戴爾則均已陷入困境。戴爾正在進行的私有化重組會讓它更多地成為服務供應商，而非硬件制造商——這和IBM曾經的做法異曲同工，后者最終在2005年將PC業務轉讓給了聯想。坎寧安的結論是：“如果一家公司的所作所為表明它可能退出PC市場，消費者和其他企業就會注意到這一點，同時采取相應的行動。”

????不過，鑒于整個PC市場滑坡的速度如此之快，有一點看來很明顯，那就是PC基本上正在成為一種純粹的辦公設備。原因是平板電腦和手機已經能滿足人們對計算機的大部分要求，比如與他人互動，閱讀新聞故事和觀看視頻。（財富中文網）

????譯者：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.