Market intelligence from Gartner (News - Alert) claims that the PC market has been on a downward spiral for the past six quarters, achieving the lowest back-to-school quarter since 2008.

PC shipments were down to 80.3 million units in the third quarter of 2013, an 8.6 percent decrease from the same period last year.

"The third quarter is often referred to as the 'back-to-school' quarter for PC sales, and sales this quarter dropped to their lowest volume since 2008," said Mikako Kitagawa, Principal Analyst at Gartner in a statement. 

Kitagawa said that this is due to consumers shifting from PCs to tablets for daily content consumption in mature as well as in emerging markets. This is because the availability of inexpensive Android (News - Alert) tablets attracts first-time consumers in emerging markets, and as supplementary devices in mature markets.

Acer and Asus both suffered hits to market share during the three month period, while Lenovo (News - Alert), HP and Dell saw gains.

According to Gartner, Lenovo held onto the top spot with 17.6 percent of global sales, just ahead of HP's 17.1 percent. Both still sit ahead of Dell (News - Alert), which grew market share by 1 percent during the quarter.

Tablets and inexpensive media consumption devices are replacing existing PCs or making people hold off buying new ones in both developing and mature markets, according to Gartner. Tablets also provide an alternative to costly laptops and desktop units, so businesses are investing in the mobile tablet as a way to equip their employees.

Tablets are not just for games and mobile communication. Both Android-bases tablets and iPads are tools perfectly equipped to take notes, be creative, and help students and business people collaborate.

When tablets first hit the market, few managers and company owners could have predicted how thoroughly the new technology would impact small business. Today, tablets are everywhere, and the PC market is feeling it.