Best Buy CEO claims tablet market is crashing, PC reviving

In an interview with Walt Mossberg, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly revealed that his company saw a revival of its PC sales in the first quarter of this year. Joly believes the end of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system's lifecycle is one of the reasons why more and more people are once again buying new PCs.

The tablet market on the other hand has reached a peak and Joly claims volume has really gone down in recent months. He adds that the penetration rate of tablets was unbelievable fast but notes that very few people are upgrading to newer versions because there's been very little innovation in the tablet market.

The tablets boomed and now are crashing. The volume has really gone down in the last several months. But I think the laptop has something of a revival because it’s becoming more versatile. So, with the two-in-ones, you have the opportunity to have both a tablet and laptop, and that’s appealing to students in particular. So you have an evolution. The boundaries are not as well defined as they used to be.

... You said the tablet had “crashed.” Do you believe it’s going away?
Yeah, “crashed” is a strong word. So, the tablets have been an unbelievable phenomenon. I don’t think there’s a category that ever took off so quickly and so big in the history of tech.

The issue has then been that, once you have a tablet of a certain generation, it’s not clear that you have to move on to the next generation.