The issue focused largely on a single, small, small portion of the market — the sale of personal computers, which are used by the vast proportion of consumers in the developed economies, and have been a mainstay for the global economy since they were first introduced in the 1980s.

But that market has been growing slowly since then. The market for personal computers, which is now estimated to be worth $100 trillion, is expected to reach $200 trillion by 2018, according to the research firm Gartner