The PC market is showing signs of recovery, IDC reports
Worldwide demand for PCs won’t be as weak as thought only three months ago, technology market researcher IDC reports. IDC today raised its forecast for worldwide PC shipment growth in 2002 to 3%, from the December forecast of 1.8%.
Retail sales in the United States and growing demand in Western Europe were key factors in revising the numbers, IDC says. With the exception of Asia-Pacific, all regions grew slightly faster than expected in the fourth quarter of 2001, and the United States recovered more quickly than other regions. “Economic indicators in the United States have finally begun to point consistently to a recovery,” said Roger Kay, director of client computing at IDC, “and given that productivity and confidence measures correlate closely with PC shipments, we can expect improving performance in the PC market through the year. Thus, we have raised our outlook from slightly negative to slightly positive in terms of expected year-on-year growth in 2002. Consumer buying should follow a normal seasonal pattern, and purchasing activity by commercial entities is expected to rise slowly but steadily.”
“With growing signs of economic recovery supporting the market, both consumers and commercial buyers are feeling more confident making significant IT purchases,” said Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. “By yearend we expect consumers will be even more optimistic and that their PC spending will reflect that. Commercial spending should also improve, as replacement buying picks up.” IDC expects worldwide PC shipments to continue to decline year on year in the first quarter of 2002, although the second quarter should be roughly on par with a year ago, and in Q3 and Q4 the market is expected to grow by almost 10%.
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