The world now has more than a billion PCs, according to Gartner, and the total should reach two billion early in 2014.
"We forecast just over 180 million PCs -- approximately 16% of the existing installed base -- will be replaced this year," said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner. "We estimate a fifth of these, or some 35 million PCs, will be dumped into landfill with little or no regard for their toxic content."
A lot of the next billion will be installed in the big developing countries, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. The majority (58%, says Gartner) of the first billion were installed in the developed world, particularly the USA, Western Europe, and Japan.
It would be interesting to know where Gartner gets its numbers from, because I can't see any sources beyond guesswork. And with sales running at 200-250 million units a year, I'd have thought we'd have hit a billion a year or two ago, on the assumption that most last four years, and some longer. (In a static market, 20% disposal rate would imply a 5-year cycle.)
Mind you, I'd have a hard time guessing how many PCs we have in our house. They aren't all still in regular use, but there's a grey area between used and scrapped. How many have you got?
