Desktop PC Demand Rises

Rising unit growth and an incremental shift toward higher cost configurations are expected to lift shipment value to $194.5 billion during 2004 on growth of 9.2 percent.

Higher growth expectations for 2004 have had relatively little impact on growth rates for 2005 and subsequent years with shipments expected to grow by nearly 11 percent in 2005 and roughly 8 percent from 2006 to 2008. Growth in shipment value is expected to hover in the 3 to 5 percent range during the remainder of the forecast. "While there is little doubt that wireless capabilities, falling prices, and the growing need for mobility have increased demand for notebooks, many buyers remain price sensitive and continue to evaluate the benefits of mobile computing," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

"Portable PCs continue to grow much faster than desktops, but recent results demonstrate the continuing competitiveness of desktop systems."

Worldwide shipments of desktop PCs grew by 13.4 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2004, up from 9.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, while portable PC growth slowed to 28.5 percent in the first quarter from more than 35 percent in the second half of 2003.

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The strong growth in desktops, which continue to represent more than 70 percent of worldwide PC shipments, helped boost growth expectations for total PC shipments in 2004 by 2.1 percent to 13.5 percent.

"Although the refresh cycle this time around is not as distinct as the one that preceded the Millennium, we are clearly going through a period of elevated demand that could be likened to a sea swell (as opposed to a wave breaking on shore)," added Roger Kay, vice president of Client Computing at IDC.

"The rise is noticeable, but not overwhelming, and will last for a number of quarters. We can expect at least another year of this level of activity as companies update their aging systems and mainstream consumers increasingly adopt PCs for digital entertainment."

This story courtesy of TechWeb.