The company published a summary of its Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker for 2017's final quarter. Its numbers included shipments for the year across all forms of PC and slate-style tablets.  It worked out that there was a 2.7 percent year-over-year decline.

Commercial PC renewal momentum remained as the main catalyst in a market that was tempered by lacklustre demand for legacy form factor devices and component shortages.

There was some growth in notebook sales, as they grew more strongly than in any year since 2012, but the overall picture was poor.

IDC advised that emerging economies will be the bright spot in the next few years, with .7 percent compound annual growth to be had in such markets. Elsewhere the only bright spot will be detachable tablets.

It does appear to be the problem caused by a flattening of technology development. Provided that it can run Windows 10, there is very little reason to upgrade a PC which has been kicking around for three years.  In fact, if fans did not make sounds like a hungry wookie there probably would not be a need to upgrade at all.  Having said that the new Ryzen 5 1600X I upgraded to did show me what I had been missing on my old machine.  But if it had not been for the power supply frying, I probably would not have upgraded either.