Despite reports to the contrary, the desktop computer is not quite dead. Evidence of life comes from comScore, which found that retail e-commerce sales from desktops increased 11.7 percent during the first quarter. Online sales from desktops reached $56.1 billion, according to comScore, the highest first quarter ever.
As a point of contrast, sales made using mobile devices grew 23 percent during the first quarter to $7.3 billion. Sixty-two percent of sales from mobile devices came from smartphones with tablets accounting for 38 percent.
The top performing e-commerce categories included apparel & accessories, consumer packaged goods, sport & fitness, digital content & subscriptions and home & garden. Each of these achieved at 13 percent year over year growth.
Gian Fulgoni, chairman emeritus at comScore, said first quarter e-commerce numbers were a bright spot and that a stronger job market and improving consumer confidence could lead to stronger performance as the year goes on. He also pointed to "key consumer tech product upgrade cycles and new product introductions" as other positive factors for e-commerce sales during the back half of 2014.