Much more like it
Preliminary figures from market researcher Gartner record worldwide PC shipment growth of 27 percent in the first quarter of this year. Gartner had previously predicted growth of 22 percent, so that's a bit of a result.
Even better news for the UK is that the main reason the PC market over-achieved was the EMEA region. "The stronger-than-expected growth was led by a robust recovery in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) PC market, which grew 24.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
"These first quarter results indicate that the professional PC market is gradually picking up, driven by PC replacements in mature markets. With a relatively positive macroeconomic outlook, business demand was more forthcoming. Major PC replacement demand driven by Windows 7 will become more apparent in the second half of 2010 and the beginning of 2011."
There were some intriguing trends among the vendors. HP is still number one, but it lost a chunk of market share to the chasing pack - especially Far-Eastern vendors like Acer and Lenovo - while ASUS narrowly overtook Toshiba, on the back of over 100 percent growth, to become the world's fifth biggest PC vendor. It's no coincidence that the best performers focus primarily on notebooks.
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)
|
|
1Q10 Shipments |
1Q10 Market Share (%) |
1Q09 Shipments |
1Q09 Market Share (%) |
1Q09-1Q10 Growth (%) |
|
HP |
15,319 |
18.2 |
12,773 |
19.3 |
19.9 |
|
Acer |
12,003 |
14.2 |
7,779 |
11.7 |
54.3 |
|
Dell |
10,209 |
12.1 |
8,406 |
12.7 |
21.4 |
|
Lenovo |
6,977 |
8.3 |
4,384 |
6.6 |
59.2 |
|
ASUS |
4,647 |
5.5 |
2,164 |
3.3 |
114.8 |
|
Toshiba |
4,623 |
5.5 |
3,404 |
5.1 |
35.8 |
|
Others |
30,565 |
36.2 |
27,309 |
41.2 |
11.9 |
|
Total |
84,344 |
100.0 |
66,220 |
100.0 |
27.4 |
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs.
Source: Gartner (April 2010)
