No Happy Holiday Season For PC Sales

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, global PC shipments were down 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period last year. PC shipments were also down 2.5 percent compared with the third quarter. The fourth quarter usually sees a seasonal uptick from the third quarter.

"The weakening economic environment, including falling home and stock values, deteriorating credit, and implications for trade and consumer spending, was clearly the dominant factor limiting growth," IDC wrote in a statement.

In addition, the research firm said low-cost portables, vendor competition and holiday promotions were not enough to overcome the economic tide.

The growth of mini notebooks, also known as netbooks, helped sales, but portable PC growth was cut to 20 percent in the fourth quarter, from about 40 percent through the first three quarters.

Desktop PC volume fell 16 percent after only a small decline through three quarters. Loren Loverde, program director for IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, said the market has taken a serious hit and the competitive environment combined with lower-cost portables could undermine profits from mobile computing.

"I won't be surprised if recovery gets pushed further into 2010 as this crisis unfolds," Loverde said in a statement.

Doug Bell, research analyst, U.S. Quarterly PC Tracker, said the first half of 2009 also looks shaky for PC sales growth.

"As expected, demand for PCs in the U.S. faced a challenging environment, with a substantial reduction in spending among both consumer and commercial segments amid tightening credit, eroding confidence and growing unemployment," he said in a statement.

Brian Alexander, managing director of technology hardware/distribution/EMS at Raymond James & Associates, said IDC's findings indicate that holiday spending was likely worse than feared.

"This also supports our belief that more transactional-focused products (PCs, peripherals, etc.) will fare worse in the current downturn, as CIOs are opting for IT projects offering a quantifiable ROI," Alexander wrote in a statement.

Dell's U.S. shipments declined 16.4 percent in the U.S. and 6.3 percent worldwide in the fourth quarter, according to IDC. Other IDC research shows: Hewlett-Packard's U.S. shipments fell 3.3 percent, but grew 3.1 percent globally.

Acer showed dramatic growth in the U.S. as its unit volume sales increased 35.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Its market share grew to 11.9 percent of the U.S. market, up from 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter last year.

Also in the U.S., Apple (7.5 percent) and Toshiba (9.8 percent) showed year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter.

All other vendors saw fourth-quarter shipments fall a combined 6.7 percent in the U.S.

Gartner also came out with its fourth-quarter PC shipment results this week, showing a 1.1 percent increase in worldwide shipments, still the worst growth rate since 2002, according to the research firm.

HP grew above the worldwide average in the fourth quarter of 2008, but its 3.5 percent year-over-year growth was its lowest since its merger with Compaq in 2003, according to Gartner.

Gartner reported Dell shipments down 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter, Lenovo down 4.6, Acer shipments up 31.1 percent and Toshiba shipments up 20.7 percent.

In the U.S., Gartner said PC shipments were down 10.1 percent, the worst decline since the last recession in 2001.

"The fourth quarter started out with a relatively optimistic view, but then it got worse every month," said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner's Client Computing Markets group. "U.S. businesses quickly cut IT spending with public sectors, including some government and education buyers, [which] postponed PC procurement due to budget crisis concerns."

Dell shipments in the U.S. fell 16.4 percent, according to Gartner, while HP's domestic sales fell 3.4 percent.