16 Jul 2009
Gartner predicted the first signs of a recovery in worldwide PC sales today, with a new report showing better-than-expected preliminary results for PC shipments in the second quarter of 2009.
The analyst firm said that PC shipments totalled 68.1 million units in the quarter, a five per cent decline from the same period last year, but better than the expected decline of 9.8 per cent.
"Though the market was still in decline, the results can be interpreted as a small sign of a PC market recovery in terms of shipment volumes in some regions, " said Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst.
"PC shipments in Asia/Pacific and the US were better than our expectations, but shipments in the Europe, Middle East and Africa [EMEA] region indicated ongoing weakness."
HP led the table of vendors, posting year-on-year growth of 2.8 per cent to leave it with a healthy 18.1 per cent market share. Dell continued to struggle in second place, with negative growth of 17 per cent to leave it with a 15.6 per cent share of the market.
However, Acer pipped Dell to the second spot in EMEA with a market share of 15.1 per cent. Both Dell and Asus experienced unit declines of over 20 per cent year on year.
"There are no signs of any return to spending in the professional market, and in most markets we seem to see further reduced spending," said Gartner principal analyst Rajit Atwal.
"The mobile consumer market supported the Western Europe market only through the increased volume of mini-notebooks, which represented nearly 20 per cent of the overall EMEA mobile PC market."
Latest stories from Components
Related articles
Related jobs
Poll
What is the most important IT priority for your company this year?
Hands on with the highly anticipated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich hybrid tablet
Connect with V3.co.uk
This paper focuses on a series of best practices and techniques for development teams looking to improve their software development processes
Why good data management at all levels is essential in the modern business (video, 6mins)
Desktop Support Manager 3 month contract - to start...
/ Programme Manager / 45k / Significant benefits / London...
Automation Test Manager Selenium London 75k Automation...
Mitel 3300 Engineer Key skills Mitel 3300...
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies. IThound.com brings you over 2,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.
Do you agree?