PC market to stay strong in 2005

Stan Beer
Thursday, 22 September 2005 10:00

IT Industry - Market

The persistent strong demand in international markets that boosted second quarter growth in the worldwide PC market has also raised expectations for the second half of the year, according to a new report.

According to the latest forecast from research group, IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, total PC shipments in the second half of 2005 are now expected to reach nearly 110 million, with growth of 12.9% versus a May target of 107.2 million and growth of 10.4%.

The biggest drivers in the second half are likely to be the consumer segments in Western Europe and Rest Of World (including Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, and Canada) with an important contribution from portable PCs. Consumer markets in other regions as well as the commercial segment will also contribute, according to IDC.

"We continue to see remarkable growth in the consumer segment and in emerging markets," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Low prices combined with low penetration, recovering or growing economies, and general investment in technology continue to fuel rapid growth in these markets. While we expect the Euro to weaken against the dollar and PC growth rates to slow from recent quarters, we still anticipate strong growth for another couple quarters."

With the strong second half of the year, total shipments for 2005 are expected to reach 204.6 million on growth of 14.1% - slightly below 15.3% growth in 2004, but up from a May projection of 11.4%. Total shipment value is expected to rise only 5.8% to $211.6 billion for all of 2005. For 2006-2008 shipments are expected to grow by roughly 9% before slowing to 8.3% in 2009. Growth of shipment value is also expected to slow, although it should remain positive throughout the forecast.