Signs Of Life? 5 Takeaways From iSuppli's Q2 PC Shipment Report

ISuppli said as much in a new report released Friday, examining sequential growth in the shipment of PCs quarter to quarter and making some predictions on how the market will shift in the coming quarters. The report highlights are as follows:

1. PC unit shipments grew in the last six months.

ISuppli said that sequential growth in unit shipments of PCs grew for the first time in six months, with total global shipments in the second quarter numbering 67.2 million units. While that's 4.3 percent lower than the 70.2 million PCs shipped in the second quarter of 2008, it's a 1 percent gain from the 66.5 million iSuppli tracked for the first quarter of 2009.

2. Notebooks are gaining, desktops are not.

"PC shipments managed to rise in the second quarter on the back of sequential growth in sales of notebook PCs, despite quarterly declines in desktops," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli in a research note.

3. Windows 7 will be a booster shot.

ISuppli cautioned that even with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system arriving this fall, it would continue to forecast a 4 percent year-over-year decline in PC shipments for 2009. However, Wilkins said, Windows 7 and the advertising blitz surrounding Windows 7 "will get more people thinking about PCs."

4. HP rules the roost. Still.

HP continues to dominate the list of PC OEMs; the strength of its shipments led iSuppli to rank it No. 1, with a 20 percent market share for the second quarter of 2009.

"Hewlett-Packard not only is maintaining its leadership position but is also gaining market share due to its robust notebook PC business, which has outgrown the overall notebook segment for the past two quarters," Wilkins said.

Rounding out the top five are Dell (13.4 percent), Acer (12.2 percent), Lenovo (8.4 percent) and Toshiba (4.9 percent).

5. Acer is gaining on Dell.

According to iSuppli, Dell was the only top-five PC OEM to show negative growth in PC shipments year-over-year, and a surge by Acer is helping to close the gap between the two vendors.

"Acer's rise is due to another strong performance from its notebook PC business, clearly capitalizing on the demand for mobile computing," Wilkins said. "Meanwhile, Dell continues to suffer because of the weakness in the corporate market, despite showing improvements in its consumer business."