Don’t rush to say that the PC is dead! According to a new research released by Gartner, the number of installed PCs worldwide has surpassed 1 billion units.

And if it took almost 30 years to get to this milestone, it seems like the second billion will be a piece of cake.

In the same statement, Gartner analysts estimate the worldwide installed base of PCs is growing just under 12 percent annually. At that pace, it will surpass 2 billion units by early 2014.

What is more interesting is that 58 percent of the world’s installed PCs are to be found in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. These markets only account for 15 percent of the world’s population.

The emerging markets will be the key factor in the future. “Rapid penetration in emerging markets is being driven by the explosive expansion of broadband and wireless connectivity in these markets, the continuing fall in PC average selling prices (ASPs), and the general realization that PCs are an indispensable tool for advancement,” said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

“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,” added Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner.

Gartner defines the installed base of PCs as the estimated number of PCs in use as opposed to the number shipped over a given a period, which is reported in Gartner’s PC forecast and market share reports.

The global PC installed base is constantly being churned as PC users replace their used machines with new ones. Some retired PCs find their way back into the installed base to second owners through various channels, some are broken up and recycled, but others are simply dumped directly into landfill.

“We forecast just over 180 million PCs — approximately 16 percent of the existing installed base — will be replaced this year,” said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.