Quote:PC shipments have been on the decline since 2011, but the 2017 holiday season actually showed some growth for the first time in six years, perhaps signaling a turnaround for the beleaguered market.

According to a new report from market tracker IDC, shipments of new PCs rose in Q4 2017 by 0.7% from Q4 of 2016, beating the forecast of a decline of 1.7%. The numbers still show the market is weak, but coupled with a year-over-year decline of only 0.2% shows that the market may actually be stabilizing, the company said.

"The solid holiday consumer sales provided enough momentum for the PC market to stabilize a bit further," Neha Mahajan, IDC senior research analyst for Devices & Displays, said in the report. "However, the growing popularity of other mobile form factors continued to have a dampening effect and led the overall U.S. PC market to perform below expectations."