Although it won’t be enough to generate growth for the entire year, the PC market made one small step away from the abyss in the second quarter as it achieved sequential growth in unit shipments for the first time in six months, according to iSuppli Corp.
Global PC shipments in the second quarter amounted to 67.2 million units. While this was down 4.3 percent from 70.2 million in the second quarter of 2008, it was up by 1 percent from 66.5 million in the first quarter of 2009.
“PC shipments managed to rise in the second quarter on the back of sequential growth in sales of notebook PCs, despite quarterly declines in desktops,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli. “iSuppli predicts continued sequential growth in the third and fourth quarters, driven by the slow improvement in the worldwide economy, along with the arrival of technology drivers, such as Microsoft Corp.’s new client operating system, Windows 7. However, this growth had been expected and doesn’t change iSuppli’s forecast of a 4 percent decline in global PC shipments for the full year of 2009.”
The launch of Windows 7 will be a major positive for the PC industry, prompting a huge advertising and media campaign from Microsoft that will put PCs in high-profile positions in mainstream electronic and print media.
“This advertising blitz will get more people thinking about PCs,” Wilkins observed. “This can only be a plus for the market.”
Shipments had declined by 14 percent sequentially in the first quarter of 2009 and by 2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Acer and Dell Move in Opposite Directions
Because of a strong rise by Taiwan’s Acer and the continued decline of America’s Dell Inc., the market share gap between the two companies continues to dwindle. No.3 Acer in the second quarter of 2009 trailed No.2 Dell by only 1.2 percentage points, down from a 6.5 point gap during the same period in 2008.
Dell’s second-quarter shipments rose to 9 million units, down 23.3 percent from 11.2 million during the same period in 2008 In contrast, Acer's second-quarter shipments surged to 8.2 million units, up 23.3 percent from 6.7 million a year earlier.
“Acer’s rise is due to another strong performance from its notebook PC business, clearly capitalizing on the demand for mobile computing,” Wilkins said. “Meanwhile, Dell continues to suffer because of the weakness in the corporate market, despite showing improvements in its consumer business.”
Hewlett-Packard Co. remained the top PC OEM for the 12th successive quarter, with shipments of 13.4 million units, up 2 percent from 13.1 million in the second quarter of 2008, giving it a market share of 20 percent.
“Hewlett-Packard not only is maintaining its leadership position but is also gaining market share due to its robust notebook PC business, which has outgrown the overall notebook segment for the past two quarters,” Wilkins said.
Read More, Touching Bottom? Desktop PCs Convulse and Contract >