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400 million Windows PCs vanished in 3 years. Where did they all go?

Back in 2019, the global PC market was showing signs of shrinking. Then the pandemic came along and made PCs and Macs relevant again. New data from Microsoft suggests that the PC market has resumed its steady decline.

That data point is tossed off casually in the opening paragraph, as Microsoft executive VP and consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi says, "Today, Windows is the most widely used operating system, powering over a billion monthly active devices..." Sounds pretty good, right? Windows has indeed lost a big chunk of its installed base in the past three years as consumers retired old PCs and switched to mobile devices or tablets instead of replacing those clunky desktops and laptops. [T]he PC market is more focused on business and government today than ever before, especially with large organizations scurrying to replace old devices running Windows 7 before the end-of-support date that's now officially less than a year away.

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