The PC Isn't Dead; It Has Evolved

The news for PC vendors -- and resellers looking to receive some margin on PC sales -- has been grim for a while. For example, a Gartner report in May projected that the global PC market will plummet to $122 billion in 2016 from $219 billion in 2012.

So it might have been easy for some solution providers to miss the fact that there are a few major profit opportunities in PCs. Specifically, Gartner identifies “ultramobile” PCs -- such as 2-in-1s and lightweight laptops -- as experiencing strong growth, and many are targeted for business use. Gartner says ultramobile PCs are expected to generate sales of $34.6 billion this year, up 16 percent from last year, and are on pace to become the largest segment of the PC market by 2019, with nearly $57.6 billion in annual sales.

With all that in mind, we rounded up nine ultramobile PCs solution providers should know about, including laptops as well as tablets with detachable keyboards. (We omitted the Surface Pro series -- most recently the Surface Pro 4 -- because we assume readers are already familiar with that hugely popular 2-in-1 device that is a key inspiration for the ultramobile trend.)