According to IDC WW 2013 tablet shipments will reach 229.3 million units with 58.7% growth, up from 144.5m for 2012-- beating portable PC shipments for the year, with the PC market showing negative growth for the second consecutive year.

As a result the analyst forecasts tablet shipments will beat the entire PC market (covering portables and desktops) by 2015, since consumers continue to prefer purchasing tablets to deal with tasks such as web access, social media, emails and any number of apps.

"What started as a sign of tough economic times has quickly shifted to a change in the global computing paradigm with mobile being the primary benefactor," IDC remarks. "Tablets surpassing portables in 2013, and total PCs in 2015, marks a significant change in consumer attitudes about compute devices and the applications and ecosystems that power them... for many consumers, a tablet is a simple and elegant solution for core use cases that were previously addressed by the PC."

Gartner reports Q1 2013 W. European PC shipment decline for the 11th consecutive time with a -20.5% Y-o-Y drop on shipments reaching 12.3 million units-- the worst decline since Gartner started tracking shipments in the region.

"Wide availability of Windows 8-based PCs could not boost consumer PC purchases during the quarter," Gartner says. "Although the new Metro-style UI suits new form factors, users wonder about its suitability for traditional PCs."

All PC segments show declines. Mobile PC shipments fall by -24.6% Y-o-Y, while desktops drop by -13.8%. Shipments to the professional segment decline by -17.2%, and the consumer segment is hit even worse by -23.7%.

Both HP and Acer record declines of over -30%, even if HP remains the W. European market leader (with 19.7% market share) despite consumer notebook volumes dropping by half. On the other hand Acer slips to 3rd place in the vendor rankings, with shipments dropping by -36.8% Y-o-Y.

Global smart mobile device (combined notebook, tablet and smartphone) shipments total 308.7 million units with 37.4% Y-o-Y for Q1 2013 according to Canalys, with Android devices making 59.5% of shipments.

When it comes to other OS vendors, iOS has 19.3% market share thanks to strong smartphone and tablet market presence, while Windows share totals 18.1% through "relative" PC market strength.

Tablets continue to show the fastest growth of the three market segments-- Canalys reports WW Q1 2013 tablet shipments are up by 106.1% Y-o-Y to 41.9m units. Apple controls 46.4% of the market, even if it continues to lose share for the 3rd consecutive quarter to the Android-based competition.

"The commoditisation of the tablet market has happened far quicker than that of the wider PC market," the analyst says. "Profit margins are being squeezed and vendors without a low cost structure will find it hard to compete. A solid range of must-have accessories and a software and services strategy are vital as vendors will increasingly need to make revenue around their devices."

The global tablet market remains strong IDC reports-- Q1 2013 shipments grow by 142.4% Y-o-Y to 49.2 million units, with demand for smaller screen devices fueling shipments.

Apple outperforms earlier IDC projections for the quarter, managing to beat seasonal Q1 shipment drop off (following strong Q4 sales) with shipments reaching 19.5m units compared to a forecast of 18.7m.

"Sustained demand for the iPad mini and increasingly strong commercial shipments led to a better-than expected Q1 2012 for Apple," IDC says. "In addition, by moving the iPad launch to Q4 2012 Apple seems to have avoided the typical Q1 slowdown that traditionally occurred when consumers held off buying in January and February in anticipation of a new product launch in March."

ABI Research believes in the "strong potential" of the smartwatch-- according to the analyst changing consumer perceptions will lead to smartwatch shipments of over 1.2 million units for 2013 alone.

“The strong potential emergence of smartwatches can be attributed to several reasons,” ABI says. “Contributing factors include the high penetration of smartphones in many world markets, the wide availability and low cost of MEMS sensors, energy efficient connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth 4.0, and a flourishing app ecosystem.”

One can divide wearables in 4 categories-- notification types, voice operational smartwatches, hybrid smart watches and completely independent smartwatches.

Notification type devices include the MetaWatch and Cookoo smartwatches, providing alerts of the incoming call and message variety.

Global device (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) shipments are set to total 2.4 billion in 2013 before reaching over 2.9 billion by 2017 Gartner reports, even if the device mix will see changes during the period.

Consumer preference to lower-priced tablets, coupled with growing capability, accelerates the shift away from PCs-- traditional desktop and notebook PC shipments are to drop by -7.9% during 2013, although ultramobile shipments should offset the decline to -3.5% when combined.

"While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device," the analyst says. "As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis."

comScore releases the 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus report-- an overview of the European digital landscape providing a guide to current trends in web usage, online video, mobile and search.

"European consumers are more digitally-engaged than ever before and their usage of mobile, internet-enabled devices is re-defining the media landscape," the analyst says.

According to the report 408.3 million in Europe used the internet via either PC or laptop in December 2012, a 7% Y-o-Y increase.

Within the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK) 57% of mobile users owned a smartphone during Q4 2012, with Spain having the highest (66%) smartphone adoption rate. For the same period 23m EU5 users own both smartphone and tablet.

Global smart connected device (desktop and notebook PCs, tablets and smartphones) shipments reach 1 billion units in 2012 IDC reports, growing by 29.1% with revenues worth $576.9 billion.

Shipments in Q4 2012 amount to nearly 378m and revenues are over $168m as Apple closes in on market leader Samsung with 20.3% unit shipment share (versus 21.2% for Samsung) thanks to the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini.

Apple dominates Q4 2012 on a revenue basis, with 30.7% share versus 20.4% Samsung share.