14 DAY TRIAL // The PC industry is continuously cooking and shipping more and more units in order to meet the increased demand on the market. It seems that the industry has set a new record for the last year, or at least, that is what market analyst Gartner wants us to believe.
Worldwide PC shipments reached 75.9 million units in the last quarter of 2007, which accounts for a 13.1 percent increase over the same quarter in 2006. Gartner also estimates that more than 271.2 million generic PCs have been shipped during the whole 2007 worldwide. This means that the industry has shipped 13.4 percent more PCs than in 2006.
"The Europe, Middle East and Africa region continued to be the largest PC market in 2007," said Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. "Asia/Pacific took over as the second-largest PC market during the fourth quarter. [Last year] showed a clear indication of the worldwide PC market landscape: strong growth in emerging regions, such as Asia/Pacific, and slower growth in markets such as the US."
The increased numbers did not change only the way consumers take advantage of technology, but also set a new hierarchy as far as PC manufacturers are concerned. Hewlett-Packard is the current leader in the computer market, which includes both desktop and laptop systems, after the company managed to snatch 18.2 percent of the market share last year (15.9 percent more than in 2006).
Dell only accounted for 14.3 percent, down more than 1 percent from the 15.9 percent it enjoyed during 2006. The third place is claimed by Acer, but the company is well behind the two US-based competitors and could only score 8.9 percent of market share. Lenovo is the next in line with 7.4 percent. Last and least, Toshiba ends the top with an incredibly low 4 percent.
"HP established a solid number-one position in 2007," said Kitagawa. "Robust consumer and mobile PC sales across all regions were two main drivers of HP's overall growth. The company experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors in fourth quarter of 2007, as its shipments increased 23.3 percent in the quarter."