Gartner says all regions around the world experienced positive shipment results during the final quarter of last year...
Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 90 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, a 22.1% increase from the fourth quarter of 2008, according to preliminary results from Gartner.
The IT research firm says it was the strongest quarter over quarter growth rate the worldwide PC market has experienced in the last seven years, but points out the numbers are compared to a very weak quarter a year ago due to the economic downturn at that time.
“These preliminary results indicate the recovery of the PC market on a global level,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
“The U.S. and Asia/Pacific had already shown positive indicators last quarter, however the fourth quarter 2009 results were more concrete evidence of the recovery.”
Kitagawa says shipment growth was largely driven by low-priced consumer mobile PCs, both in regular notebooks and mini-notebooks.
“As economic weakness continued, buyers became extremely price sensitive. Low-priced PCs were good enough for many average consumers,” Kitagawa said.
”Windows 7 was launched during the fourth quarter of 2009. Though the new operating system launch did not create additional PC demand, the launch was a good market tool during holiday sales.”
HP maintained the top position in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009, as it grew slightly higher than the industry average. Gartner analysts said HP did very well in the US market, and it regained the number one position in the US and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).
