Communications and Technology Industry Research

According to the results of surveys released on Wednesday by both Gartner (News - Alert) and IDC, the worldwide PC market showed a 15.3 percent growth in the second quarter 2008. However, the weak economy poses great challenge for worldwide PC makers in the coming quarters.

 

The first few to face the brunt of the weak economy are U.S. PC manufactures.

 

“As expected, the U.S. market had a sluggish performance, with growth in low single-digits due to budgetary constraints among both consumers and businesses. Despite a tough economic environment, some vendors executed well, in particular Dell (News - Alert) with its channel and retail expansion," said David Daoud, research manager, Personal Computing.

 

In U.S, PC shipment grew by a mere 3.6 percent to 17 million units, down from IDC’s prediction 3.8 percent, noted Daoud.

 

According to IDC, a sharp increase in notebook sales and the ultra low-cost PC offerings contributed for the growth of PC market in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In Asia-Pacific region, the growth was lower than expected. IDC attributes rising energy costs and inflation for the same.

 

Dell leads the U.S. market with 5.4 million shipments, showing a year-over-year growth of 12.1 percent. HP followed with 4.3 million unit shipments and 5.9 percent year-over-year growth. Acer and Apple (News - Alert) are neck-and-neck with approximately 1.3 million shipments for each.

 

According to IDC, HP continues to lead the worldwide PC market. In the last quarter, HP contributed for 18.9 percent share of the worldwide PC shipment market by selling 13.32 million units, up 16.8 percent year-over-year. Dell followed, by selling 11.56 million units with a 16.4 percent market share, up 21.4 percent year-over-year. Acer, in third place, witnessed a sharp increase of 63.5 percent year-over-year, with 6.97 million units shipped. Lenovo and Toshiba (News - Alert) occupied fourth and fifth position respectively. Lenovo sold 5.6 million units of PCs whereas Toshiba sold 3.1 million units in the second quarter of 2008.

 

In a report released on Wednesday, Gartner said that the financial crunch has forced many PC makers to cut down PC prices, in order to remain competitive. Although this situation would benefit end-users, it could possibly result in the end of small PC makers.

 

"The industry could ultimately see a significant wave of consolidation if stronger vendors continue to press their pricing advantage," said Gartner in its report.

 

The Gartner report showed similarity with IDC data for PC sales worldwide. Gartner found that HP leads the worldwide PC vendor market with a total share of 18.1 percent. HP sold 13 million units of PCs in the last quarter. Dell contributed to 15.6 percent of the market share with 11.2 million PC sales. Acer and Lenovo (News - Alert) followed with 6.7 million and 5.6 million shipments respectively.

 

According to Gartner, PC shipment in EMEA grew 23.5 percent whereas in Asia-Pacific, it showed 18.1 percent growth.

 

However, in the U.S., Gartner found that Apple took over Acer in PC sales, occupying the third position behind Dell and HP. The total PC shipment for Apple was 1.4 million units, whereas that for Acer was 1.3 million units. Dell led the market with 5.3 million sales; HP had 4.2 million shipments.