The last decline in PC shipments was a 5.1 decrease back in 2001 due to the crazy dot com bubble, so it's not like PC sales decline regularly. That makes this 4% drop quite unusual.
What does this mean? Most likely, it means we were right: the desktop PC is sputtering out. Not all the decrease can be attributed to the weak economy, seeing as notebook PC shipments raised by 11.7%. Pretty soon we're going to see desktops become a niche market, reserved only for pros, dental assistants and gamers. [iSuppli]
DISCUSSION
i guess i'm part of that "niche" market since i'm two of the three qualifiers you state. also, i'd say about 90% of people in college get laptops for school but most of my friends are getting desktops now that they realize laptops don't have nearly the life of desktops.