Gartner: iPad Redfining PC's (AAPL)

Gartner has lowered its PC sales for 2011 due to strong demand for tablets, led primarily by the Apple AAPL iPad. The IT research firm lowered its sales forecast for the next two years, as tablets are "redefining" the PC's place in consumers' lives. Gartner said worldwide PC sales will reach 38.7 million, which is a gain of 10.5% from 2010, but down sharply from the 15.9% increase Gartner originally forecast. The company also sees PC shipments totaling 40.6 million units in 2012, a 13.6% increase from 2011's numbers. This has been revised down from 14.8% growth in 2012. "These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer mobile PC demand, in no small part because of the near-term weakness expected in China's mobile PC market, but also because of a general loss in consumer enthusiasm for mobile PCs," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "We expect growing consumer enthusiasm for mobile PC alternatives, such as the iPad and other media tablets, to dramatically slow home mobile PC sales, especially in mature markets," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner. "We once thought that mobile PC growth would continue to be sustained by consumers buying second and third mobile PCs as personal devices. However, we now believe that consumers are not only likely to forgo additional mobile PC buys but are also likely to extend the lifetimes of the mobile PCs they retain as they adopt media tablets and other mobile PC alternatives as their primary mobile device." All this for a product many didn't think would succeed. Not bad, Mr. Jobs. Not bad at all.