Q4 PC Reports Indicate Economy Hurt Market

By Colleen Bohen -- TWICE, 1/26/2009

NEW YORK — The worldwide financial crisis took a toll on the global PC business in the fourth quarter, according to market research firms Gartner and IDC.

In fact, the worldwide PC industry suffered “its worst growth rate since 2002,” according to Gartner who said worldwide shipments totaled 78.1 million units last quarter, up 1.1 percent compared with the same quarter in 2007.

According to IDC, worldwide PC shipments were down 0.4 percent year on year in the quarter. The firm also reported a sequential 2.5 percent decline from the third quarter.

“Low-cost portables, vendor competition and holiday promotions were simply not enough to overcome the economic tide, even with the market for mini notebooks (also known as netbooks) taking off,” said IDC in a release.

Gartner called the mini-notebook segment “the growth driver for the 2008 holiday PC season.”

IDC estimated that notebook volume for the fourth quarter was at near 5 million units, bringing the total for 2008 to about 10 million; it expects the category to double in 2009.

IDC said mini notebooks account for nearly 7 percent of total portables, but the overall portable market saw its growth cut roughly in half from nearly 40 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2008 to roughly 20 percent in the fourth quarter. It also said the desktop category saw volume down 16 percent from a year ago after “only a small decline earlier in the year.”

In the U.S. alone, Gartner said, “the PC market in the fourth quarter of 2008 had its worst shipment decline since the last U.S. recession in 2001.” The firm said PC shipments in the U.S. declined 10 percent in the fourth quarter.

“The fourth quarter started out with a relatively optimistic view, but then it got worse every month,” said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner’s client computing markets group. “In the fourth quarter, U.S. businesses quickly cut IT spending with public sectors, including some government and education buyers, [and] postponed PC procurement due to budget crisis concerns. PC vendors focused on the professional market were especially hit by the weakening market conditions. Overall, consumer mobile PC shipments showed strength, but the shipment growth was boosted by steep [average sale price] declines which were further accelerated by the popularity of mini-notebook.”

Hewlett-Packard maintained its place as the top PC vendor worldwide for the quarter, and Dell maintained its position atop the U.S. PC market.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates For Q4 2008
(Thousands of Units)

	Q4 ’08		Q4 ’07		Q4 ’08-Q4 ’07 Growth
Company	Shipments	Share	Shipments	Share
HP	14,915.4	19.1%	14,405.0	18.7%	3.5%
Dell	10,319.7	13.2	10,971.7	14.2	-5.9
Acer	9,637.3	12.3	7,351.3	9.5	31.1
Lenovo	5,549.2	7.1	5,808.4	7.5	-4.5
Toshiba	3,654.9	4.7	3,026.9	3.9	20.7
Others	34,006.4	43.6	35,632.7	46.2	-4.6
Total	78,082.9	100.0	77,195.9	100.0	1.1
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs and X86 servers. Source: Gartner (Jan. 2009) © TWICE 2009

Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide PC Shipments, Q4 2008 (Preliminary)
(Unit Shipments are in Thousands)

		Q4 ’08		Q4 ’07		Q4 ’08-Q4 ’07 Growth
Rank	Company	Shipments	Share	Shipments	Share
1	HP	15,190	19.6%	14,726	19.0%	3.1%
2	Dell	10,616	13.7%	11,325	14.6%	-6.3%
3	Acer	9,112	11.8%	7,272	9.4%	25.3%
4	Lenovo	5,549	7.2%	5,830	7.5%	-4.8%
5	Toshiba	3,670	4.7%	3,054	3.9%	20.2%
	Others	33,169	42.9%	35,444	45.6%	-6.4%
	All Vendors	77,305	100.0%	77,651	100.0%	-0.4%
3	Acer (Merged)	9,112	11.8%	7,891	10.2%	15.5%
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC © TWICE 2009