Costs of PCs in the UK are set to continue to fall, according to the latest market reports from analysts at IDC.

The new IDC report states: "The UK PC market demonstrated solid performance in 1Q08, as overall PC shipments for the quarter reached more than 3.25 million units, an increase of 14.3 per cent year-on-year."

The notebook market continues to grow at a healthy rate, growing "by a very healthy 41.8 per cent, thanks to renewals, further expansion of the installed base to new buyers, and multiple-equipment purchases."

The end of the Desktop?

Many users are now choosing to replace their old desktop PCs with new, affordable laptops.

"Demand for notebooks, stimulated by fierce vendor competition and aggressive pricing, will remain a key engine for growth throughout the year," said Lucie Jichova, research analyst for IDC's EMEA PC research group.

"Economic pressure will continue to drive cautious spending behavior, but the arrival of low-cost ultraportables, increasing traction of telco bundles, and mobile solutions in the business space, will maintain strong momentum in the notebook market in the second half of the year."

Cheap laptops for all

The reallly promising news for UK consumers is that the price of laptops is going to continue heading in the right direction – downwards.

"Consumers are going to benefit from attractive notebook offers as competition among vendors in the retail channel intensifies," states the IDC report.

"Recently, we have seen an introduction of affordable ultraportable PCs, which have been very well received by consumers. IDC expects that these basic surfing devices will continue to sell extremely well throughout 2008."