• Associated Press, Thursday, July 15, 2010 1:29 PM

Mobile might be the medium du jour, but consumers won't be surrendering their desktop devices anytime soon. Indeed, worldwide shipments of personal computers climbed 22.4% in the second quarter, according to new data from market research group IDC. As reported by the Associated Press, the healthy growth is attributed to businesses replacing aging computers, and consumers continuing to show interest in inexpensive laptops.

Still, the growth was half a percentage point less than IDC predicted, due to slightly lower PC shipments in the U.S. and Asia. Looking ahead, IDC analyst Loren Loverde said the group will likely reduce estimates for the current quarter and the rest of the year slightly, although he still characterizes the industry's performance in the quarter "quite good." Meanwhile, one trend likely to slow PC sales going forward is the increasing power of the average processor.

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