Worldwide PC shipments to grow 14 percent in 2010: Gartner

Worldwide PC shipments are on pace to
total 352.4 million units in 2010, a 14.3 percent increase from 2009,
according to the latest preliminary forecast by href="https://www.dqweek.com/gartner-s-latest-forecast">Gartner.
These
projections are down from Gartner's previous PC shipment forecast
in September of 17.9 percent growth. 2011 worldwide PC shipments are
forecast to reach 409 million units, a 15.9 percent increase from
2010. This is down from Gartner's earlier estimate of 18.1 percent
growth for 2011.

“These results reflect marked
reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of
weaker consumer demand, due in no small part to growing user interest
in media tablets such as iPad,” said Ranjit Atwal, Research
Director, Gartner. “Over the longer term, media tablets are
expected to displace around 10 percent of PC units by 2014,” he
said. While Gartner does not regard the current dynamics in the PC
market quite yet as an inflexion point, analysts do see many
disruptive forces coming together that will weaken the market moving
forward. “PC market growth will be impacted by devices that enable
better on-the-go content consumption such as media tablets and
next-generation smartphones,” said Raphael Vasquez, Research
Analyst, Gartner. “These devices will be increasing embraced as
complements if not substitutes for PCs where voice and light data
consumption are desired. It is likely that desk-based PCs will be
adversely impacted over the long-term by the adoption of hosted
virtual desktops, which can readily use other devices like thin
clients,” Vasquez said.

“PCs are still seen as necessities,
but the PC industry's inability to significantly innovate and its
overreliance on a business model predicated on driving volume through
price declines are finally impacting the industry's ability to induce
new replacement cycles,” said George Shiffler, Research Director at
Gartner. “As the PC market slows, vendors that differentiate
themselves through services and technology innovation rather than
unit volume and price will dictate the future. Even then, leading
vendors will be challenged to keep PCs from losing the device
'limelight' to more innovative products that offer better
dedicated compute capabilities,” he added. In the near term, many
consumers and businesses will continue to refrain from buying PCs, as
they collectively rebuild their finances in the face of slower income
growth, weaker employment gains and a cloudy economic outlook. Over
the longer-term, users are likely to slow PC replacements and extend
PC lifetimes as they turn to other devices as their primary computing
platform.