IDC predicts expanding PC market

Jake Widman
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 11:02

IT Industry - Market

According to a report from analysts IDC, 2010 will kick off a five-year stretch of double-digit growth worldwide.

Data from the company's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker shows that the PC market worldwide grew by 2.9% in 2009 -- 6.7% in the U.S. and 1.8% in the rest of the world.

That growth should increase sharply this year, if IDC is correct, to 12.6% worldwide. Growth is expected to continue around that level for the next four years: 13.9% in 2011, 12.7% in 2012, 11.5% in 2013, an d11.3% in 2014.

By far the main driver of this growth is portable PCs. IDC predicts the growth rate to hover in the high teens or low 20s through 2012 before dropping off to 15.5% worldwide by 2014.

In fact, in the U.S., portable PCs are the only factor that keeps growth positive. IDC found that shipments of desktop PCs dropped by 12.3% in 2009 (U.S. and international both). While the company expects international shipments of desktop systems to grow slightly, it sees the U.S. market continuing to decline, by 5.8% in 2010 and at a slower rate thereafter.

Revenue is also expected to recover slowly, not reaching the 2008 figure until 2012. And since much of the growth will come from portable (read cheaper) PCs, it will take 140 million more units shipped to reach that level.

Worldwide, IDC expects 333.2 million PCs to be shipped this year, rising to 531.3 million by 2014.