Worldwide PC shipments continue double-digit growth

The worldwide PC market continued its expansion in the
first quarter of 2006 with year-on-year growth of 12.9 percent despite an
expected decline from growth of 15.9 percent in 2005, according to IDC's
Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.Nearly all regions were inline or slightly ahead
of forecasts for the first quarter, helping boost worldwide shipment growth for
1Q06 to 12.9 percent, slightly higher than IDC's March forecast of 11.8
percent. Portable adoption remained a key trend in all regions and consumer
growth appeared relatively strong following the holiday season.

HP and Gateway saw notable surges in growth in the first
quarter while growth for Dell and Fujitsu Siemens slowed considerably -
particularly in their core markets. HP appears to have benefited from channel
efforts and aggressive pursuit of consumers while Gateway made gains in the
public sector in addition to the consumer market. The field of leading vendors
performed fairly well in the quarter with market performance inline or ahead of
expectations, whereas Dell may have focused on profit-ability at the expense of
volumes, especially in the United States.

“Market growth ahead of forecasts in almost all regions
reflects continuing strong demand,” said Loren Loverde, Director of IDC's
Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. “While this bodes well for the short term,
Dell's relatively slow growth may set the stage for more aggressive pricing in
coming quarters. While this would help drive volumes, it would not help
profitability.”

“The US PC market was slightly lower than forecast with
about 5.3 percent year-over-year growth versus a forecast of 6.7 percent, with
both desktop and notebook PC shipments growing slightly slower than expected,”
said Bob O'Donnell, VP, Clients and Displays at IDC.

“This quarter saw some important shifts in market share
with HP and Gateway outperforming the market and gaining share, while Dell sales
were relatively flat and Lenovo slipped out of the Top 5.”

The Asia Pacific region maintained robust year-on-year
growth of over 20 percent for the third consecutive quarter. Strong year-on-year
growth in China and Korea, combined with continued demand in Thailand and the
Philippines despite the political disruptions there, helped boost regional
growth.

CyberMedia News New Delhi, April 21