There was a time when the programs and applications you used only existed on PCs, said Ranjit Atwal, a research analyst at Gartner who watches the PC market. "But that's not the case anymore." Sales figures suggest that the plethora of those other gadgets are making households reluctant to buy PCs at the moment. Mr Atwal said Gartner is expecting a "notable" slowdown in the number of PCs consumers buy in late 2011 and 2012. That seems odd given what technological advances and the recession are doing to the desktop PC. "The PC has become commoditised so it can sell at lower prices," said Mr Atwal. "And that's been exaggerated by the economic downturn." Even though the PC is cheap and is getting cheaper, that is not tempting people to pick up a new one. "Instead," said Mr Atwal, "we're investing in other devices." In these tight times, people appear unwilling to spend cash on something they already have. Evidence suggests they are using it to buy the gadgets they do not own - such as tablets and smartphones. Hanging on The bad news does not end there. More evidence that the PC is being left behind comes from data gathered by online computer memory store Crucial. It produces software that customers can download and run on their computer to gather information about their system. The retailer uses the tool to advise customers about what they should be buying to beef up their PC. Many people are using their spare