Research company IDC recently released its report on global PC shipments for Q4 2015. As expected the last financial quarter proved to be a tough one for the industry, with a year-on-year decline of 10.6%. According to those figures, it would be the steepest fall in PC shipments ever, with the previous mark of 9.8% in 2013. While IDC's findings were relatively sombre, Gartner registered a slightly better margin of 8.3%. 

In general however, the overwhelming majority of PC makers were under the cosh, as manufacturers like Asus, Lenovo and HP suffered losses, according to IDC's figures. That said, many research companies predicted a conservative quarter for companies, and these numbers stayed in line with IDC's expectations. Some of the contributing factors included growing popularity of smartphones, phablets and tablets, with the IDC stating that devices like the Apple iPad Pro, "may have syphoned off some consumer interest in traditional PCs. Consequently, the holiday season produced soft results for the U.S. PC market," says Linn Huang , research director, devices & displays at IDC. 

Added to this was the change in OS, both positive and negative, and more specifically from Microsoft's side. The end of support for Windows XP for example, meant many PC users decided to upgrade to a new device. Conversely, the launch of Windows 10 was viewed with some slight hesitancy, as the uptake of new devices embedded with the OS was slower than anticipated.      

While the last quarter proved tough, IDC believes 2016 will see a slightly more positive outlook. "Commercial adoption of Windows 10 is expected to accelerate, and consumer buying should also stabilise by the second half of the year. Most PC users have delayed an upgrade, but can only maintain this for so long before facing security and performance issues. We continue to believe that a majority of these users will purchase another PC, motivated by new products and attractive pricing," concluded Loren Loverde , IDC vice president, worldwide PC tracker.