Worldwide PC shipments are growing, but two leading researchers don’t agree on the size of the growth. Gartner Inc. reports that PC shipments grew 5.5% to 34.47 million units in the first quarter of the year vs. the first quarter of last year. Researchers IDC says shipments grew 2.1% in Q1 vs. a year ago to 34.6 million.
"Worldwide first quarter 2003 results were slightly ahead of expectations, but even so do not signal a major return to buying. Aggressive price cutting was an important factor in maintaining PC shipment growth during the first quarter," said Charles Smulders, vice president of Gartner's computing platforms worldwide group. "The PC market felt some impact from the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq in the second half of March, following generally better-than-expected performances in January and February. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) did not play a major factor in the growth levels on a worldwide basis."
"While results were close to forecast, consumer spending was relatively weak, and we have yet to see a significant rise in commercial activity," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "A slow economy and talk of war reduced demand in the first quarter, but many expected to get back to business soon. Now, people are starting to realize that military victory in Iraq still leaves questions about global security and economic recovery, and it may be a while before growth picks up."
Both researchers agree that Dell, Hewlett Packard and IBM are the leading vendors, in that order.
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