Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Grew 7.6 Percent in Third Quarter of 2010

Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 88.3 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 7.6 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. These third quarter results were below Gartner's earlier market outlook. Gartner had expected third quarter PC shipments to grow 12.7 percent.

"The major growth inhibitor in the third quarter of 2010 was softness in consumer PC demand in the U.S. and Western Europe. The third quarter historically is a strong consumer quarter, led by back-to-school sales in those regions," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Consumer mobile PC demand, driven by low-priced notebooks, including mini-notebooks, slowed after very strong growth the past two years."

"Media tablet hype around devices such as the iPad has also affected consumer notebook growth by delaying some PC purchases, especially in the U.S. consumer market. Media tablets don't replace primary PCs, but they affect PC purchases in many ways," Ms. Kitagawa said. "At this stage, hype around media tablets has led consumers and the channels to take a 'wait and see' approach to buying a new device."

HP remained in the top worldwide position (see Table 1), but it experienced a slight decline in shipments in the quarter. HP experienced a 20 percent decline in shipments in Asia Pacific as the company put a higher priority on profits in the region. In the U.S., the company was impacted by weak consumer growth.

Table 1: Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q10 (Thousands of Units)

Company	3Q10 Shipments	3Q10 Market Share (%)	3Q09 Shipments	3Q09 Market Share (%)	3Q09-3Q10 Growth (%)
HP	15,431,749	17.5	15,513,420	18.9	-0.5
Acer	11,527,716	13.1	11,726,586	14.3	-1.7
Dell	10,816,474	12.2	9,908,099	12.1	9.2
Lenovo	9,140,778	10.4	6,871,379	8.4	33.0
Asus	4,793,186	5.4	3,911,263	4.8	22.5
Toshiba	4,695,600	5.3	4,014,945	4.9	17.0
Others	31,896,091	36.7	30,106,333	37.1	5.9
Total	88,301,595	100.0	82,052,026	100.0	7.6

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs.

Source: Gartner (October 2010)

Acer experienced a shipment decline of 1.7 percent in the third quarter. Dell showed solid growth across most regions. Overall, Dell benefited from the professional PC market refresh, but North America showed disappointing results. Lenovo showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors worldwide. The professional PC market helped boost Lenovo's growth in the U.S. and EMEA.

In Asia Pacific, PC shipments reached 29.7 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 10.5 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009. In the emerging markets, mobile PC demand in the consumer segment continued to grow unabated as mainstream notebooks continue to appeal to first-time PC buyers as well as those substituting notebooks for desktops. Overall, desk-based PCs grew 3.2 percent, while mobile PC unit shipments grew 19.9 percent compared with 3Q09.  PC shipments in China in the third quarter of 2010 held steady at 62 percent of all PCs shipped in Asia Pacific, growing 11.3 percent over the same quarter last year.

PC shipments in Japan surpassed 3.6 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 14.1 percent increase from the same period last year. Large deals in the enterprise and government sectors drove PC sales in the quarter. In the consumer market, replacement demand for primary PCs, both desktop and large-size mobile PCs, has continued to grow since the beginning of 2010.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Market Share Alert: Preliminary PC Market Results, Worldwide, 3Q10." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1451731.

These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product-planning, distribution, marketing and sales organisations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe. Additional research can be found in the Computing Hardware section of Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/asset_129157_2395.jsp.

About Gartner

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