Fourth-Quarter PC Growth Stymied: iSuppli

By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 3/30/2009

El Segundo, Calif. — The PC market finally felt the full impact of the economic crisis in the fourth quarter as unit shipments began falling off, said research firm iSuppli.

iSuppli said PC shipments fell 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter. Worldwide shipments for the fourth quarter were 79.9 million. Historically, sequential fourth-quarter growth is 10 percent, said iSuppli.

The company blamed the credit crunch for the drop, saying consumers and businesses simply could not get the funding to make purchases.

The impact of the economic and credit crisis on the PC market for 2009, according to iSuppli, will result in little to no growth. Previously, the company had projected a modest 4.3 percent growth in shipments. Desktops will continue to be the weaker product partner going forward, but notebooks will see a reduced growth rate this year.

Despite the fourth-quarter downturn, the computer market shipped 299.4 million units, an 11.6 percent increase, for the 2008 The market grew 12.4 percent in 2007. Notebooks continued to be the driving force, with worldwide shipments rising 35 percent last year. Desktops were down 4 percent for the same period.

PC Market Share Rankings In The Fourth Quarter Of 2008
(Ranking by Units in Thousands)

Rank	Company	Q4 2008 Shipments	Q4 2007 Shipments	Year-to-year Growth	Q4 2008 Mkt. Share
1	Hewlett-Packard	14,493	14,567	-0.5%	18.6%
2	Dell	10,286	11,320	-9.1%	13.2%
3	Acer	9,201	6,320	45.6%	11.8%
4	Lenovo	5,500	5,760	-4.5%	7.1%
5	Toshiba	3,675	3,070	19.7%	4.7%
	Others	34,711	35,135	-1.2%	44.6%
	Total Shipments	77,866	76,172	2.2%	100.0%
Source: iSuppli © TWICE 2009

For the fourth quarter and year iSuppli had Hewlett-Packard as the top shipper of PCs with a market share of about 18.6 for both periods. Dell remained in second place, but it’s position is being threatened by the hard-charging Acer. Acer year over year growth climbed 57.9 percent on 31.8 million units shipped giving it about 10 percent of the market.