PC sales hitting the skids - printers too?

Silicon Valley pub SJ Mercury News reported the negative news

Much discussion and analysis has come out following a bad first quarter for PC sales. Trying to integrate many of these thoughts, and then projecting on how a PC downturn, perhaps permanent, will change the related Printer business, is top-of-mind for many who follow the rather specialized printing-and-imaging corner of the tech industry.

Sorting through some of the best work has been my task over the last couple of days. And good old (well, not really old) Social Media has been there to help. As I learned when  I first started using Twitter a few years back, going beyond its more obvious role as a publishing platform, it also comes in handy as a book-marking tool, where by commenting on and re-tweeting others' work, I can go back and find references when trying to perform this integration and reflection process.

So going back to Thursday April 10th, when the news first broke, I found six notable retweets (including the initial, just-the-facts piece presented above), in chronological order (earliest first). I will provide links (minus my Tweeting) here:

PC Sales Show Biggest Q1 Decline Ever - All Things Digital

 

PC industry sees worst sales quarter in nearly 20 years - San Jose Mercury News

Enough Already with the "Death of the PC Era"Garbage - Forbes

 

The Death of the PC Has Not Been Exaggerated - Forbes

Who's killing the PC? Blame the cloud - ZDNet

Big price cuts as PC industry scrambles to rebound - Marketwatch

Escaping PCs - ASYMCO

Interesting that of all the pieces (including the two from Forbes, which provide an interesting point-counterpoint approach), none argue that there is a reversal in the downward trend coming soon. The analysis centers more on the "why?" and "how fast?" questions. And if printing is following suit? This one is harder to track down, but I will offer my prediction that the two categories' fortunes are tightly linked, in a case of correlation if not causation.

One of the few pro-PC voices is that of 

This will provide much discussion and observation for many periods to come.