Steep first quarter drop in worldwide PC sales

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Worldwide sales of personal computers fell sharply in the first three months of the year but the US market held up better than others, market research firms IDC and Gartner reported Wednesday.
DC said worldwide shipments of desktop and portable PCs fell 7.1 percent in the first three months of the year compared with last year while Gartner said they registered a decline of 6.5 percent in the quarter to 67.2 million units.

"We are seeing some evidence of channel inventory restocking, particularly in the US," said Gartner research director George Shiffler. "This restocking should not be interpreted as a recovery in PC end-user demand; it's still unclear if the global PC market has hit the bottom."

Shiffler's comments contrasted with those of Intel president Paul Otellini, who said Tuesday that the world's biggest computer-chip maker believed PC sales had "bottomed out during the first quarter and that the industry is returning to normal seasonal patterns."

IDC's Loren Loverde said "tight credit and economic concerns have certainly taken a toll on PC shipments in the last couple quarters, but the move to portables, fueled by mini-notebooks and falling prices, has mitigated the impact.

"Following a drawdown in inventory throughout the supply chain, we expect more stable production over the next couple quarters, with growth returning around the end of the year."

IDC said the US PC market "fared better than expected, and breaking with tradition, even outperformed the global market and many emerging regions."

IDC said PC sales fell three percent in the United States in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year, while Gartner put the decline at 0.3 percent.

Hewlett-Packard remained the number one PC maker worldwide with a 20.5 percent market share according to IDC and a 19.8 percent share according to Gartner followed by Dell, Taiwan's Acer, China's Lenovo and Japan's Toshiba.

HP edged past Dell in the US market in the first quarter according to both IDC and Gartner, taking the top spot for the first time since 2001.

HP captured 27.6 percent of the US market in the first quarter according to IDC with Dell next at 26.3 percent followed by Acer with 10.5 percent, Apple with 7.6 percent and Toshiba with 6.6 percent.

"HP's dethroning of Dell as the US market share leader and extending its worldwide market share lead is a testament to the company's solid record of business execution over the last several quarters and indicates that Dell still faces some challenges in its efforts to reignite its business," IDC said.