Down but doing OK

Global personal computer shipments totaled 68.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 5% decline from the second quarter of 2008, according to preliminary results from Gartner Inc.

Gartner, the leading computer market watcher, had forecast second quarter PC shipments to decline 9.8%.

“In the first quarter of 2009, inventory re-stocking played a major role in shipment growth, but this was less of a factor in the second quarter,” Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “Though the market was still in decline, the better than expected results can be interpreted as a small sign of a PC market recovery in terms of shipment volumes in some regions.”

A July 17 report from the Consumer Electronics Association suggests the consumer electronics industry will see shipment revenues fall 7.7%, to $165 billion this year, the first decline since 2001.

“While consumer demand for CE products remains high, several market forces are contributing to lower revenues, including lower consumer spending, price declines and compositional shifts in key product categories. As consumer confidence rebuilds, industry revenues will grow, albeit at a pace of less than one percent in 2010. CEA’s forecast projects industry revenues will bottom out by the second half of 2009, although many risk factors remain causing industry growth to remain muted,” noted the CEA in its statement.

According to Gartner, the second quarter 2009 global personal computer market share winner was Hewlett-Packard. The top five in computer sales market share are:
Hewlett-Packard: 19.6%
Dell: 13.6%
Acer: 13.5%
Lenovo: 8.4%
Toshiba: 5%

GARTNER REPORT NOTES
Personal computer shipments in the U.S. totaled 16.4 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a decline of 1.2% from the second quarter of 2008. Gartner predicted a U.S. annual decline of 12%.

Desk-based PCs continued to show a double-digit decline, while mobile PC shipments showed strength with an increase in the 20 percent range.

PC shipments in Asia/Pacific registered 20.5 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 2.3%increase from the second quarter of 2008. This is the first positive growth indicator after two quarters of negative shipments.

The PC market in China grew 7 percent in the quarter. The main contributor was the release of pent up demand since the fourth quarter of 2008, as well as improved market confidence fueled by China’s stock market and real estate industry.

PC shipments in Japan surpassed 3.4 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 3.2% decline. The professional market continued to indicate weak performances because of sluggish demand from the corporate segment that has been affected by the recession.

In Latin America, PC shipments totaled 5.8 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a decline of 16.6% from the same period last year. A myriad of macroeconomic factors are affecting Latin America PC consumption, particularly in Mexico where many major sources of income, such as tourism, remittances and trade, have been rapidly diminishing.