While the growing attractiveness of tablets and phablets to consumers is anathema to manufacturers and retailers caught with a large inventory of laptops and desktops, it spells good news for potential buyers due to the significant cut in retail prices of these devices.

Industry forecast of PC and laptop demand on the way down was confirmed last week by research firm IDC which reported global shipment of PCs tumbled down by 14 per cent in the first three months of 2013 to 76.3 million units. For the same quarter, Gartner, another research company, reported an 11.2 per cent cut in PC shipments.

For instance Hewlett-Packard shipments went down almost 24 per cent to 11,997, causing the tech firm's market share to shrink to 16 per cent from 18 per cent 12 months ago.

Lenovo's shipment was flat at 11,700 units for the same period, but its market share actually grew slightly to 15 per cent from 13 per cent. Dell's shipment plummeted 11 per cent, Acer 31 per cent and Asustek 19 per cent.

As a result, some manufacturers and retailers have drastically reduced their prices such as the Lenovo U310 13-inch Ultrabook laptop now sold for $500 at TechBargains.com, down from $750.

The same store retails the Dell Inspiron 15 Intel Core laptop for $480, down from $1,089.

HP dropped the price of its HP Envy X2-11-G012NR touchscreen notebook by $250 to $599.

At Amazon, the HP X2-11-G010NR is reduced to $680 from $999.

Microsoft Store cut by half the price of the Toshiba Satellite U925t-52130 to $799 from $1,149.

IDC said the biggest loser is Windows and other PC makers, aside from Apple, since the Windows 8 OS and the new laptops designed to run on the new operating system failed to ignite the PC market.

"At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market," The Australian Financial Review quoted IDC Program Vice President for Clients and Displays Bob O'Donnell.

He explained that the radical changes to standard computing elements such as the user interface and higher cost made the newly released PCs and laptops less attractive compared to tablets. To help revive the market, he said Microsoft would need to make some tough decisions.

But the cut in PC sales appears to have affected Apple less since Apple iMacs with price tags of $1,200 are still number one on Amazon.com's fast-selling desktops, while the $250 Chromebook of Samsung is the bestseller for laptops, said Brian Colello, Morningstar analyst.

However, in a commentary, Michael Endler, associate editor of InformationWeek.com, debunked the idea that the PC will die a natural death. He said that while some professionals such as salespeople, doctors and educations have shifted to tablets because of the device's portability, businesses will continue to buy PCs in large volumes.

"Word processing, the hype for an iOS version of Office notwithstanding, is still an uncompromised experience on a tablet. It's not impossible to create compelling content on iOS or Android, but most options are pretty watered down compared to their Windows or OS X equivalents. Smartphone users seem pretty content with Instagram, for example, but I'm sure I'm just one of millions who will keep buying PCs as long as it's the only real option for Photoshop, After Effects and other high-performance, hobbyist-friendly software," Mr Endler wrote.

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