Personal-computer shipments plummeted in every region of the world in the first quarter as buyers opted for smartphones and tablet computers and Microsoft Corp.’s newest operating system met with weak demand.
Global PC unit shipments fell 14 percent in the first quarter -- the worst such decline on record -- to 76.3 million, a bigger drop than the 7.7 percent decline IDC had forecast, the market researcher said in a statement yesterday. The slump was the steepest since IDC began tracking shipments in 1994.