Q4 PC Growth Stymied
By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 3/6/2009
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.
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.
PC Market Rankings for the fourth quarter of 2008 (Ranking by units in thousands)
| Ranking | Company | Q4 2008 Shipments | Q4 2007 Shipments | Year to Year Growth | Q4 2008 Market 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% | |
PC Market Rankings for 2008 (Ranking by units in thousands)
| Ranking | Company | 2008 Shipments | 2007 Shipments | Year to Year Growth | 2008 Market Share |
| 1 | Hewlett-Packard | 55,966 | 49,571 | 12.9% | 18.7% |
| 2 | Dell | 43,262 | 39,493 | 9.5% | 14.4% |
| 3 | Acer | 31,807 | 20,140 | 57.9% | 10.6% |
| 4 | Lenovo | 21,790 | 20,108 | 8.4% | 7.3% |
| 5 | Toshiba | 13,604 | 11,140 | 22.1% | 4.5% |
| Others | 133,002 | 127,920 | 4.0% | 44.4% | |
| Total Shipments | 299,430 | 268,371 | 11.6% | 100.0% | |
Source: iSuppli
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