14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that IT companies can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the industry has once again regained its steadily growing status. In fact, it could be said that things are progressing better than some had hoped, with the global PC market even exceeding analyst expectations during the recently ended quarter. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, last year's decline has been overcome and growth has been restored on the PC front.
In the first three months of 2009, the PC market declined by almost 7%, which was the lowest growth recorded since 2001. This year, however, thanks to excellent performance of both mobile as well as desktop PCs, the worldwide market exceeded estimates, showing a growth of 24.2%, to 79.1 million units. This was possible because of rejuvenated consumer demand and commercial buying, which put a stop to quarterly declines on the desktop front.
"The strong first quarter builds on the fourth quarter rebound and shows rising confidence in the PC supply chain and commercial client base along with persistent demand from consumers," said Loren Loverde, vice president, IDC Worldwide Trackers. "The commercial gains are a cornerstone of market rebound that we've been expecting and are now seeing in the data. Despite continued strengthening of commercial demand and solid consumer and emerging market results, year-on-year growth is likely to slow in coming quarters as year-ago comparisons get more difficult. This is part of an expected recovery trend that should include strong second quarter performance and lift growth for the year to 15% or higher."
"The U.S. PC market exhibited encouraging signs of recovery in the first quarter. While part of this growth is a correction from a dismal 1Q09, some of it was driven by new PC refresh projects in the commercial markets. This is in addition to ongoing consumer appetite for more mobile devices as price points remain attractive and the multi-device per user environment expands," said Andrew Hanson, research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Going forward, we expect tremendous activity from the supply side around product innovation and new form factors and designs, which are likely to drive interest among consumers. As such, we remain optimistic about PC growth this year and next, but caution that sustainable growth in the PC space will also require sustained economic growth."
HP held first place, with 15.6 million units, followed by Acer (with 13.6%) and with Dell a close third (13.5%). IDC considers that a major factor in the restoration of growth on this market segment was the continued recovery of emerging markets. The list of important elements also included growth of specialized designs (like AiO PCs) and improved business sentiments.