Citing potentially poor holiday sales, IDC lowered its PC unit shipment forecast for 2002 and now anticipates the market growing only 1.1 percent.
The Framingham, Mass.-based research firm originally predicted PC sales would increase 4.7 percent this year and about 11.1 percent in 2003. This was initially reinforced by the strong second quarter PC vendors experienced, but any sustained sales improvement is now being pushed off until late 2003. Worldwide computer sales are now expected to be 135.5 million units.
“The momentum we saw coming into the second quarter has all but disappeared as businesses continue to postpone PC investments and consumers spending has slowed,” said Loren Loverde, IDC’s director of worldwide quarterly PC tracker.
Loverde said predicting how consumers will spend their money for the remainder of the year is hard, but all signs suggest they will not choose to buy PCs.
Adding to the computer sales doldrums is the fact that retailers have indicated that the just-ended back-to-school selling season was less than stellar.
