Research firm Gartner has forecast that fast-moving trends in the world of computing and operating systems will ruin Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) within five years.
The Guardian reports:
Microsoft faces a slide into irrelevance in the next four years unless it can make progress in the smartphone and tablet markets, because the PC market will continue shrinking, warns the research group Gartner.
It says a huge and disruptive shift is underway, in which more and more people will use a tablet as their main computing device, researchers say.
That will also see shipments of Android devices dwarf those of Windows PCs and phones by 2017. Microsoft-powered device shipments will almost be at parity with those of Apple iPhones and iPads — the latter a situation not seen since the 1980s.
Microsoft shares are inactive so far in premarket trading, but closed they last night at $28.59. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $26.26 to $32.89.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks