Gartner is reporting that the number of installed PCs worldwide has surpassed 1 billion units. Gartner analysts estimate the worldwide installed base of PCs is growing just under 12 percent and by 2014 it will surpass 2 billion units. Gartner defines the installed base of PCs as the estimated number of PCs in use as opposed to the number shipped over a given period. Around 58% percent of the worlds PCs install base is in mature markets like US, Western Europe and Japan, but these markets only account for 15 percent of world’s population. Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner said, “whereas mature markets accounted for just under 60 percent of the first billion installed PCs, we expect emerging markets to account for approximately 70 percent of the next billion installed PCs.” It took PCs 30 years to reach one billion mark, but it will reach the next billion in just 6 years. You can read the complete Gartner report here.