• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 28, 2013

Tablet shipments will outpace those of portable PCs this year as demand for PCs overall continues to slide, according to a new IDC forecast. The research firm project tablet worldwide shipments will rise 58.7% to 229.3 million units in 2013 while notebook computers will fall 6.7% to 187.4 million.

IDC also revised downward is forecast for the total PC market from a decline of 1.3% this year to 7.8%, with shipments falling from 349.2 million to 321.9 million. Further, tablets are expected to surpass total PC shipments by 2015. The tablet surge “marks a significant change in consumer attitudes about compute devices and the applications and ecosystems that power them,” noted IDC analyst Ryan Reith.

While Apple’s iPad has led the tablet revolutions, the firm said lower cost Android devices are behind the latest market expansion. The worldwide average selling price for a tablet is expected to fall 10.8% this year to $381. A PC costs nearly double, at $635. There has also been a shift toward smaller, under 8-inch tablets since last year.