PC manufacturers are reacting to both Microsoft and Apple, who are both defying gravity with their high-end tablet and PC market share wins. As the top three PC makers saw shipments sink in 2015, Apple's share of the market grew 5.8 percent, according to Gartner. Microsoft is also reporting that Surface Pro tablets are growing at double-digit rates.

"Dell really has a tour de force with its XPS line of 15-inch laptops that Dell has been able to make as small as its competitors' 13-inch laptops," said Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates. Dell and other OEMs will continue to mine the higher -margin premium PC market for more revenue.

Kay said PC makers will continue to push higher margins and the higher end of the ultra-mobile premium laptop market. "OEMs feel like Microsoft poked them in the eye when it decided to go after the higher-margin end of the business and try to champion. Meanwhile, OEMs are saddled with low-margin business and consumer desktop customers as Microsoft chases after the most desirable market."

On the flip side, Kay says, PC manufacturers may have themselves to blame. "Microsoft is stimulating demand at the high end of the market because OEMs failed to. Microsoft and Intel got together and basically said, 'If you won't build a premium high-mobility notebook, then we will,'" Kay said.   

Clarke said Dell's relationship with Microsoft has never been tighter and is a reseller of Surface Pro tablets. "Look, in my mind anything that helps build the Windows ecosystem is OK by me.” And when it comes to Dell selling hardware that competes with the Surface Pro, Clarke said, “I like my chances in competing against Microsoft.”

Clarke said Dell's relationship has never been tighter and is a reseller of Surface Pro tablets. "Look, in my mind anything that helps establish the Windows ecosystem and build the Windows ecosystems is OK by me. I like my chances in competing against Microsoft in a pure hardware business," he said.   

Clarke said Dell's 2-in-1 PC business is its fastest-growing subcategory. And at the premium end of the market, he said, Dell has seen a 250 percent  year-over-year growth in its XPS business.

For PC resellers such as based Entre Computers' Braceland, premium laptop and tablets sales are still the minority. Microsoft has done an excellent job creating buzz around the Surface tablet and Surface Book, Braceland said, but sales of either are about as rare as a Gucci handbag on a Wal-Mart shopper's shoulder.

Despite double-digit declines in the PC market, both IDC and Gartner are projecting PC shipments to start rebounding in 2016. Gartner is forecasting a "soft recovery” in late 2016. It said PC makers and resellers should look for profitability over shipment volume, and focus on such segments as bundling desktops with large screens and ultra-mobile PC models.

More optimism comes from a recent report from Moor Insights and Strategy that reports that employers will buy new PC gear that appeals to a highly mobile workforce as the workplace increasingly becomes dominated by millennials.

"With smartphone adoption over 90 percent, millennials are accustomed to connectivity, convenience and speed wherever they are. It stands to reason that they would expect their computers to be responsive, reliable and attractive like their smartphones, as well as lightweight with good battery life," wrote Patrick Moorhead, president and principal of Moor Insights and Strategy.

Moorhead contends that 2016 will see a blurring of the line between enterprise-class and consumer PCs.