Did Apple or the Economy Cause the PC Sales Slump?

Researchers blame the decline in PC sales on "weak demand amid economic uncertainties." But is the economy truly to blame for this unexpected sales slump? According to the Wall Street Journal, two industry research firms, Gartner IT and International Data Corp., believe that the economy is indeed the cause. Both firms said that shipments of personal computers dropped by 0.1 percent, which amounts to "hundreds of thousands of units." This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of lackluster PC sales. IDC provided some further details, adding that the second quarter -- which was expected to grow by 2.2 percent -- severely underperformed. Gartner, on the other hand, still believes that PC shipments could rise 2 percent this year. The market could receive a significant boost in October when Microsoft MSFT releases its highly anticipated OS upgrade, Windows 8. Designed with touch screens in mind, Microsoft surprised the world when it announced that it was developing its own tablet, Surface. Despite the hype for Windows 8, Microsoft could have a tough road ahead. The company does not expect to sell more than a few million Surface tablets in the coming year. At the same time, small- and medium-sized enterprise users are not expected to upgrade to Windows 8 for at least a year. "Consumers are less interested in spending on PCs as there are other technology products and services, such as the latest smartphones and media tablets that they are purchasing," Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner, said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. Intel INTC has been trying to regain consumer support for PCs by promoting its own version of the Apple-made AAPL MacBook Air. Known as Ultrabooks, Intel does not manufacture these laptops, but its processors can be found in each device. Intel processors can also be found in the MacBook Air, as well as the next-gen MacBook Pro, which has blown away sales expectations. With hundreds of thousands of MacBook Airs sold every quarter last year, and an unprecedented (though unspecified) number of MacBook Pros being sold right now, it seems unlikely that the economy is solely to blame for the sluggish sales of Windows PCs. It could be that consumers are simply waiting for Windows 8 to be released. However, if the current sales figures are any indication, consumers may actually be choosing to buy Apple products instead. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ