2010 PC Shipments To Jump 20%: Gartner

Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 3/4/2010

Stamford, Conn. - Gartner has again boosted is 2010 worldwide PC shipment forecast, with unit shipments expected to increase almost 20 percent.
Gartner expects 366.1 million units to ship this year, up from the 305.8 million units that shipped in 2009. Spending on PCs will rise 12.2 percent to $245 billion. The research firm's December 2009 prediction anticipated a 13.3 percent shipment increase. Spending was expecte Stamford, Conn. - Gartner has again boosted is 2010 worldwide PC shipment forecast, with unit shipments expected to increase almost 20 percent. 

Gartner expects 366.1 million units to ship this year, up from the 305.8 million units that shipped in 2009.  Spending on PCs will rise 12.2 percent to $245 billion.  The research firm's December 2009 prediction anticipated a 13.3 percent shipment increase. Spending was expected to be just above flat at 1.9 percent.

George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said this growth will be largely driven by mobile PCs, particularly netbooks. However, the impact these ese diminutive computers have on the market will decline in the near future in the face of competition from ultra-low voltage notebooks and next-generation tablet PCs such as Apple's iPad.
"We expect mobile PCs to drive 90 percent of PC growth over the next three years," Shiffler said, "In 2009, mobile PCs accounted for 55 percent of all PC shipments; by 2012, we expect mobile PCs to account for nearly 70 percent of shipments."

The impact the iPad and tablets will have on the market is somewhat hard to judge, but Gartner is predicting about 10.5 million of these types of devices will ship this year worldwide. d to be just above flat at 1.9 percent.
George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said this growth will be largely driven by mobile PCs, particularly netbooks. However, the impact these ese diminutive computers have on the market will decline in the near future in the face of competition from ultra-low voltage notebooks and next-generation tablet PCs such as Apple's iPad.
"We expect mobile PCs to drive 90 percent of PC growth over the next three years," Shiffler said, "In 2009, mobile PCs accounted for 55 percent of all PC shipments; by 2012, we expect mobile PCs to account for nearly 70 percent of shipments."
The impact the iPad and tablets will have on the market is somewhat hard to judge, but Gartner is predicting about 10.5 million of these types of devices will ship this year worldwide.