The PC business might not be dying, but it’s certainly very sick right now, and the IDC has the numbers to prove this diagnosis.

Last month, the IDC released its latest quarterly report, stating that the PC market had slumped a record 13.9 percent in the previous quarter, before further stating that PC shipments this year would decrease by 1.9 percent.

But now, things have taken a sharp turn for the worse, with IDC releasing revised figures showing that the PC shipments will in fact drop by a massive 7.8 percent in 2013, double the decline from the previous year.  But that’s not even the worst of it, because from here on in, things are only going to get worse.  The firm predicted that PC shipments would decline by another 1.2 percent in 2014, and a further 1.5 percent in 2015.

The reason for the PC’s sickness is the rapidly growing mobile market, particularly where consumers are concerned.  These days, people are engulfed in a world full of apps and social media and many of them are content with palm-sized devices to cater for their needs. People no longer see the need to shell out their cash on expensive, bulky PCs, since most of the things that they do online can be done using smartphones or tablets that are far easier to carry around and generally cost a lot less money.

“Many users are realizing that everyday computing, such as accessing the Web, connecting to social media, sending emails, as well as using a variety of apps, doesn’t require a lot of computing power or local storage,” VP Loren Loverde said in the firm’s press release.

“… these users have not necessarily given up on PCs as a platform for computing when a more robust environment is needed, but this takes a smaller share of computing time, and users are making do with older systems.”

Don’t get me wrong, PCs are still important but they’re no longer the kind of device that constantly needs replacing with a newer model.  The vast majority of people are happy to hang on to their older model, whilst supplementing it with a tablet or some other device. Laptops and desktops just aren’t cool anymore, nor are they essential, and the result is that people will only buy them when they really need a new one.

Today, most people are more focused on replacing their smartphones or tablets with the newest model – after all, these are the devices have almost become fashion accessories, and they just have to be had, no matter what the cost. Laptops don’t even come close.

The prospects for PC makers are not good. While the market certainly won’t go away for a long time yet, it’s undoubtedly undergoing a rapid transformation – one that could ultimately lead to some PC makers (notably Dell) falling by the wayside

Nevertheless, it seems there’s always someone willing to buck the trend. Defying all the odds, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo seems on especially solid ground. While everyone else loses money with declining sales, Lenovo has actually recorded growth in PC shipments, establishing its brand as the top PC maker in Asia.