Low-cost laptops help computer market dodge economic pressures

by Stevie Smith - Sep 11 2008, 09:14

Although financial experts may be claiming that the U.S. economy is on a distinct downward spiral, any festering lack of consumer confidence besetting the country doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting the computer industry -- thanks, in the main, to the popularity of budget laptops.

More pointedly, market intelligence specialist IDC has said that recent hardware shipment volumes and increasing competition in the “rapidly growing low end of the Portables market” is likely to help sustain solid growth over the next four years.

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, while U.S. shipments of desktops are forecast to drop from 37 million to 35.5 million units in 2008, portable shipments are expected to hit 35.3 million by the close of the year, which is a year-on-year increase of 17.7 percent.

Further to that, IDC also believes current growth will see the portable market shipping more than 61 million units across the U.S. by 2012, which will be more than twice attributed to the country’s desktop market.

That trend is also repeated on the worldwide stage, with portable computers expected to ship some 148.2 million units in 2008, which is a year-on-year increase of 37.2 percent. IDC predicts that the global market will be shipping around 298.3 million units by 2012, while the desktop market will be shipping approximately 184.3 million.

“We continue to see a rapid transition to Portable PCs around the world, even as economic pressures rise,” commented Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

“The trend reflects the increasing importance of computing, not just in the home or office, but as an integrated part of our lives,” he added. “Falling prices, more design choice and competition for PC makers to capture this market continue to drive a rapid transition.”

IDC’s tracking technology gathers PC market data from 55 countries by vendor, form factor, brand, processor brand and speed, sales channel and user segment. The collated research includes historical and forecast trend analysis as well as price band and installed base data.

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