For the second consecutive year, the PC industry is expected to see negative growth as consumers continue to favor tablets over traditional computers. Research firm IDC forecast that shipments of tablets worldwide will surpass notebooks in 2013, and will outgrow all PC shipments by 2015.

The IDC expects tablet shipments to grow 58.7% year-over-year to 229.3 million units, up from 144.5 million in 2012. The average cost of a tablet is also expected to decline by 10.8% to $381, mainly due to flood of cheap Android based tablets. The average cost of a PC in 2013, has doubled to $635. This does not look good for the industry, especially for Microsoft and its Windows 8 operating system.

In the past, the 8-inch to 11-inch tablets were the most dominant, however, due to the popularity of the iPad Mini, the Kindle Fire, and the Google Nexus 7, the sub 8-inch tablet market has exploded. This market now accounts for 55 percent of tablet shipments; the IDC expects it to grow up to 57 percent by the year 2017.

"What started as a sign of tough economic times has quickly shifted to a change in the global computing paradigm with mobile being the primary benefactor," said Ryan Reith, Program Manager for IDC's Mobility Trackers. "Tablets surpassing portables in 2013, and total PCs in 2015, marks a significant change in consumer attitudes about compute devices and the applications and ecosystems that power them. IDC continues to believe that PCs will have an important role in this new era of computing, especially among business users. But for many consumers, a tablet is a simple and elegant solution for core use cases that were previously addressed by the PC."

Tablets are not only for entertainment and for media consumption; they are a great tool for education.

"Apple's success in the education market has proven that tablets can be used as more than just a content consumption or gaming device," said Jitesh Ubrani, Research Analyst for the Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. "These devices are learning companions, and as tablet prices continue to drop, the dream of having a PC for every child gets replaced with the reality that we can actually provide a tablet for every child."