Apple shines as PC industry fights way back from decline

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 05 August 2009 09:56

Business IT - Technology

Amidst a decline in revenues afflicting the PC market in the economic downturn, only Apple amongst all the vendors managed some growth in the first quarter of this year, thanks to triple-digit growth in revenue from sales of its iPhone.

There is, however, some light at the end of the long recessionary tunnel, with Technology Business Research (TBR), in its latest Computer Business Quarterly (CBQ) report for Q109, saying that while PC vendors still have a long road back to positive growth, it now sees signs of an economic recovery starting to appear.

According to TBR, Apple recorded strong growth in iPhone sales despite declines in Macs, software, services and peripherals. The company was also the operating margin leader in TBR’s survey due to the positive revenue growth on the back of the iPhone.

Meanwhile, TBR says Hewlett-Packard’s EDS acquisition has buoyed its year-to-year revenue compare, helping to soften double-digit declines across the company’s hardware portfolio.
 
IT firms are positioning for post-recession revenue and profit growth by focusing on operating improvements and higher-margin sales, according to TBR, and it says that during 1Q09, the overall revenue leader, HP, released a number of products and “remained focused on keeping its product lines current and laying the groundwork for future growth,” while runner-up IBM continued to invest in new product initiatives and growth markets, including the BRIC nations.

TBR also forecasts that hardware unit sales and revenue will take at least a year to recover to pre-recession levels, and although it says PC makers showed some signs of recovery by posting healthier sequential revenue growth results in 1Q09 than 4Q08, it does not expect top IT companies to show top-line revenue growth until mid-2010 due to a slow return to spending by enterprises.

“While computer hardware vendors continued to report year to year revenue declines in 1Q09, some results were better than 4Q08, signaling a bottom to the hardware recession,” notes CBQ analyst Ezra Gottheil.

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