The worldwide PC market grew 13.7% in the fourth quarter of 2004, driven by the small and medium business segments and holiday consumer demand.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, total shipments rose to 51.5 million units for the quarter, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in worldwide PC shipments and beating projections of 13% growth. Shipments for all of 2004 reached 177.5 million units on growth of 14.7%, representing peak recovery following the market contraction of 2001, and essentially meeting IDC’s forecast of 14.5%. Total shipments in 2004 were more than 26% over 2000 volumes, and IDC expects growth of roughly 10% in 2005 before shipment growth slows to single digits.
“Business demand and growth in key regions like EMEA continue to drive the market,” said Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. “Although we saw a seasonal rise in consumer shipments, particularly in EMEA and Rest of World, business remains a larger market and has been growing faster since mid-2004. Ongoing PC replacements and new investment should continue to drive commercial growth at least through the end of 2005.”
Following another quarter of strong growth, Dell is now the uncontested market leader. After ceding the top spot to HP in the fourth quarter of 2002 and 2003 following HP’s merger with Compaq, Dell managed to distance itself from HP by a full point of market share in the fourth quarter, and seems to have the momentum on its side. Other vendor highlights include significant improvements from Gateway and Apple. While still losing share, Gateway showed the first signs of meaningful improvement following its merger with eMachines. Similarly, Apple saw a significant kick from its new iMac and attention related to its music business, reinvigorating a business that had been struggling to keep pace with the market.
“The fourth quarter of 2004 represented a milestone in the personal computing industry, as total worldwide volume exceed the figure of 47.4 million set a decade ago in 1994 for the entire year,” said Roger Kay, VP of Client Computing at IDC. “Spending on PCs by all sizes of business continues to improve steadily, and consumers came out in force in the holiday quarter to pursue their growing interest in PCs and the digital lifestyle.”
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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