PC shipments up on strength in U.S., Asia/Pacific, Latin America

By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor -- Electronic News, 7/19/2007

Preliminary PC shipment results for Q2 are in from Gartner Inc. and IDC, both showing growth around 12 percent year-over-year growth based on strength in the United States, Asia/Pacific and Latin America regions.

Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner reported an 11.7 percent increase from the same period last year, higher than Gartner’s previous projection of 10.6 percent growth for the quarter and marking some 61.1 million PC shipments. Worldwide PC shipments grew by 12.5 percent in the quarter, according to Framingham, Mass.-based IDC, which reported some 58.8 million in shipments and a more than 20 percent increase in Asia/Pacific volume from the same quarter one year ago.

Gartner’s numbers for PC shipments in Asia/Pacific totaled 17 million units, an 18.3 percent increase from a year ago. The firm also noted that PC shipments in China grew 23.6 percent, driven by strong demand from the professional market.

A competitive market in the United States also helped boost overall growth, IDC noted, adding that channel expansion and competition for the consumer and small business segments added to the trend toward portable systems as key market drivers. Overall, IDC reported that the U.S. market accelerated to 7.2 percent growth following a slow second half of 2006.

The Latin America PC market also proved to have a positive impact in Q2, with shipments of 5.2 million units, a 25 percent increase from Q2 2006, according to Gartner. The firm credited home PC shipments for the growth, which increased 32 percent in the region last quarter. This was 10 percentage points ahead of the professional segment’s growth rate.

“The PC market experienced a boost from better than expected sales in the United States, Asia/Pacific and Latin America,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner’s client computing markets group, in the firm’s statement. “The U.S. desk-based PC market beat our expectations, due in part to higher than expected sales in the professional market. In the Asia/Pacific region, China and South East Asia saw strong shipment growth.”

Both firm’s place Hewlett-Packard as the number one vendor for the quarter. Gartner placed HP’s PC shipments of 11.1 million at 18.2 percent of the worldwide total Q2 shipments, up from 14.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, while IDC placed HP's shipments at 11.3 million and share of worldwide shipments at 19.3 percent, up from 16 percent in Q2 2006.

Struggling Dell came in second, according to the firms. Gartner reported Dell had 15 percent market share with Q2 shipments above 9.1 million, while IDC reported Dell had just more than 16 percent share and nearly 9.5 million shipments.

"This was another strong quarter that sets the stage for solid growth in the second half of 2007 and 2008," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, in the firm’s statement. "Despite the temptation to simplify, the market is not just about replacing systems at the lowest cost. System design, customer service, channel coverage, and market expansion are all playing key roles in winning business."