Global PC Spending Set To Hit 245 Billion

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Global PC Spending Set To Hit $245 Billion

By: Mike Sachoff
2010-03-05

Global PC shipments are on track to total 366.1 million units in 2010, a 19.7 percent increase from 305.8 million units shipped in 2009, according to the latest preliminary forecast by Gartner.

Worldwide PC spending is forecast to reach $245 billion in 2010, up 12.2 percent from 2009.

The forecast is more optimistic than Gartner's December 2009 forecast, which predicted a 13.3 percent growth in PC shipments in 2010 and 1.9 percent growth in spending.

Gartner expects all regional markets will return to growth exhibit more normal seasonality in 2010. The market will remain robust with unit growth continuing to increase strongly over the next three years as home PC demand increases and professional replacements rise in the recovery from the global recession.

"The PC industry will be overwhelmingly driven by mobile PCs, thanks to strong home growth in both emerging and mature markets," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

"Mini-notebooks are again forecast to boost mobile PC growth in 2010, but their contribution is expected to decline noticeably afterward, as they face growing competition from new ultra-low-voltage (ULV) ultraportables and next-generation tablets. Desk-based PC shipment growth will be minimal and limited to emerging markets."

"We expect mobile PCs to drive 90 percent of PC growth over the next three years," said Mr. Shiffler. "In 2009, mobile PCs accounted for 55 percent of all PC shipments; by 2012, we expect mobile PCs to account for nearly 70 percent of shipments."

Apple's launch of its upcoming iPad has created much discussion in the marketplace about market opportunities for traditional tablet PCs and next-generation tablet devices, such as iPad. Gartner anticipates vendors could ship up to 10.5 million traditional tablets and next-generation tablet devices worldwide in 2010.

"Apple's iPad is just one of many new devices coming to market that will change the entire PC ecosystem and overlap it with the mobile phone industry," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner.

"This will create significantly more opportunities for PC vendors as well as significantly more threats."

View All Articles by Mike Sachoff

About the Author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.


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