Good News From The PC Market


The personal computer market topped expectations in the second quarter as resilient consumers shopped for portables, and shipments to China and other Southeast Asian economies reversed course and grew.

The overall market continued to shrink during the three months. But the decline was smaller than anticipated and it gave some analysts hope the market would once again expand by the fourth quarter.

Research firms Gartner and IDC released quarterly numbers on Wednesday afternoon that offered similar market assessments. IDC said the global market fell 3.1 percent, or less than the 6.3 percent decline it expected. Gartner said the market slipped 5 percent, a better performance than the 9.8 percent drop it projected.

“The results can be interpreted as a small sign of a PC market recovery in terms of shipment volumes in some regions,” said Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa. Asia/Pacific and the U.S. came in better than forecast while weakness continued in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Hewlett-Packard widened its lead as the world’s largest PC vendor with almost 20 percent of the market. Dell saw shipments drop sharply, but held the number two spot with an almost 14 percent share.

Acer continued to rival Dell in size with its strategy of selling low-cost portables and netbooks. Toshiba also gained ground.

The two research firms offered differing views on Apple’s place in the U.S. market. Gartner said Apple advanced modestly to 8.7 percent of the market while IDC said Apple lost ground and held 7.6 percent of the U.S. market. Apple generally prices its machines above comparable Windows models.