By Oregon Small Business Association

Analysts at IDC and Gartner Inc. said PC shipments in this year’s third quarter were down by 87.5 million, or 8% lower than a year ago. A report from IHS iSuppli projected that overall sales would decline this year for the first time in 11 years.

“This is definitively a crossroads” for the computer industry, IDC analyst David Daoud told the Wall Street Journal. “It could be a make or break moment.”

Sales of personal computers are in sharp decline, fueled by the weak economy, falling PC sales in emerging countries, and the rising popularity of smartphones and tablet computers such as the iPad and the Galaxy Tab

Todd Bradley, the head of Hewlett-Packard’s PC business, said he thinks the core PC market will stay flat “potentially through 2015.” Bradley thinks one area of the market that will grow is the all-in-one desktops, systems that have the monitor and computer in the same case.

The Chinese PC maker Lenovo reported their net profit in the three months through September was up 13% from a year ago in spite of the general PC slump. However, this profit was the smallest in more than two years, down 30% from the previous quarter.

Gene Marks of Forbes sees the decline all differently, he says “The PC industry is not dead. And it’s not dying. There’s a secret to the declining PC sales. Today’s PCs, and the operating systems that run them, just last longer”.