Report: Global PC Shipments On The Rise

Global shipments of PCs in the second quarter grew by one percent to 67.2 million units, up from 66.5 million units in the first quarter of 2009, according to a new report from iSuppli. While the total number of units shipped is down 4.3 percent from 70.2 million in the second quarter of 2008, iSuppli believes that notebook shipments may be starting to rebound.

“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,” Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli, said in a statement. “iSuppli predicts continued sequential growth in the third and fourth quarters, driven by the slow improvement in the worldwide economy, along with the arrival of technology drivers, such as Microsoft Corp.’s new client operating system, Windows 7.”

Still, even with the growth iSuppli is predicting in the third and fourth quarters of 2009, the firm is not changing its belief that global PC shipments will be down for the entire year.

“[T]his growth had been expected and doesn’t change iSuppli’s forecast of a 4 percent decline in global PC shipments for the full year of 2009,” Wilkins wrote.

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The growth seen in global PC shipments in Q2 of 2009 comes after shipments decline 14 percent in the first quarter of this year and by 2 percent in Q4 2008. Part of the growth iSuppli expects to see take place in the global PC shipments will come in part because of the impending release of Microsoft’s Windows 7. When the new OS hits the shelves in October, iSuppli expects advertising to raise PC awareness amongst consumers.

“This advertising blitz will get more people thinking about PCs. This can only be a plus for the market,” Wilkins wrote. Hewlett-Packard maintained its place atop the global PC market in the second quarter of 2009, shipping 13.4 million units, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the gap between Acer and Dell continues to shrink. Dell, number two in global PC market share, maintains a slight lead over Acer by 1.2 percentage points, down from a 6.5 percent lead one year ago.

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