PC sales take nose dive

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Personal computer sales were down more than 8-percent in the third quarter of this year, typically the time when there is an increase because of back-to-school purchases. 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that this is the largest drop for PC sales in 11 years.

Consumers are now turning to smartphones and tablet computers as their means of connecting.

"I'm on it all the time, most of it's school, email. It's so easy to access and then Facebook, texting, " said Kinga Kosiol, a Springfield Technical Community College student, who uses her smartphone to get teachers notes and class lists.

"You can do as much with a tablet that you could have done with a desktop computer ten years ago and it's going to keep moving forward.  Technology is going to keep getting smaller. We're going to be able to fit better equipment into smaller devices," said Jose Arroyo who is a self-described tech junkie.

In spite of the lack of consumer interest in PCs, businesses still rely heavily on the desktop devices.

"There's so much invested into the PC operating system and applications that can be used on the PC that, in the business world, it's hard to sacrifice a lot of that.  I think those companies need to start looking at something more unified so that all the most common apps could be used on any device interchangeably and they are getting there," said Trish Dalessio, the Director of the Technology Solutions Center at Springfield College in Springfield.