According to the latest projections from research firm IHS iSuppli, the global PC market is heading towards contraction in 2012; thereby underscoring that it will be for the first time in 11 years - since 2001 - that the market will witness a plunge.

Going by the new predictions from IHS, worldwide PC shipments in 2012 will apparently touch an approximate figure of 349 million units, marking a decline of 1.2 percent over the previous year figures of 353 million units.

All through the year 2012, slackened sales of PCs worldwide resulted in a steady decline in PC shipments; with a recently-released study clearly revealing that out of the world's four leading PC vendors, only Lenovo witnessed an increase in sales.

Despite the fact that the PC-shipment forecast for the year were already quite gloomy, some industry-watchers were hoping that back-to-school sales might turn around the situation for the better; but those hopes were dashed to the ground in September when Intel announced a downward revision in its sales forecast for the third quarter.

Noting that "there was great hope through the first half that 2012 would prove to be a rebound year for the PC market," IHS iSuppli's Craig Stice said that, with the year now into the fourth quarter, "the usual boost from the back-to-school season appears to be a bust, and both AMD and Intel's third-quarter outlooks appear to be flat to down."