LONDON, January 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

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Companies in the personal computer industry, along with investors, have been eagerly awaiting fourth quarter 2012 results. Sales from the Christmas season are a strong indicator of where consumer trends lies, and results also help to shape how a company moves forward in the new year. In the case of Christmas 2012, the overwhelming winner was tablets, with Apple Inc.'s ^[1] (NASDAQ: AAPL) 9.7 inch iPad still taking the lion share in the tablet space. Apple has been a dominant player in the tablet market since the launch of the iPad, but many tech experts believe 2013 might bring in some landscape change in this arena with players like Samsung and Dell Inc.^[2] (NASDAQ: DELL) in battle mode.

For the fourth quarter, global computer sales fell almost 5% in year-over-year comparisons, with U.S. sales dropping by over 2%, according to Gartner, a research firm. While this may seem ominous for personal computer companies, sales are not evaporating, but are merely shifting away from notebooks and towards tablets. In fact, many predict that tablet sales will outstrip notebooks for the first time this year. In response to growing demand, personal computer companies have been coming out with a wide variety of tablets, including tablets of different sizes and colors, as well as with various attachments, and WiFi and cellular capabilities.

While notebook sales are suffering at the hands of tablets, larger more powerful computers appear to be holding strong, as tablets offer little to no competitive threat. How companies will be able to adjust to the changing landscape will certainly have an impact on sales and profits moving forward, and those that can come up with the right price points, sizes and capabilities for their tablets could outperform their peers.

Several companies, including Dell Inc., have also been advancing their cloud offerings of late, in order to deal with increased demand.  

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1. Apple Inc. Technical Analysis [ http://www.StockCall.com/AAPL011613.pdf ]  
2. Dell Inc. Technical Analysis [ http://www.StockCall.com/DELL011613.pdf ]  

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