A new report from NPD Group further drives home the notion that the PC industry has a serious problem on its hands. As we all know, the problem in question is mobile devices - they continue to chip away at an industry that most probably never imagined could fall on such hard times.
The report notes that 37 percent of consumers that used to access content from a computer have now switched to using tablets and smartphones to accomplish the same tasks. Unsurprisingly, accessing Facebook and surfing the web were named as the two most popular mobile activities in the rapidly approaching post-PC era.
Similarly, 27 percent of smartphone owners polled said they have decreased Facebook usage and web surfing on their desktop and notebook computers. For tablet owners, 20 percent said they are using Facebook less on the PC while 27 percent surf the Internet less frequently from a traditional computer.
Having said that, the PC still reigns supreme in a number of tasks. For example, 75 percent of computer owners use it to surf the web compared to just 61 percent of smartphone owners who use their device for the same task. Only 53 percent of tablet owners use their slates to navigate the web.
We're still at the infancy of mobile and already, it's had a tremendous impact on the entire industry. A number of companies are now reevaluating their roadmaps to include mobile while companies like Facebook are looking to capitalize on advertising revenue from portables as quickly as possible. Either way you cut it, the landscape as a whole is changing.