PC market heading for worst year in history

by Stevie Smith - Mar 2 2009, 17:00

While the consumer-friendly Netbook market continues to defy economic pressures through its low-cost appeal and diminutive Web-centric convenience, it would appear that traditional PCs are floundering by way of comparison.

More pointedly, fresh performance projections offered up by research specialist Gartner suggest the personal computing market is on a collision course with its weakest ever yearly shipment count.

According to Gartner research director George Shiffler, PC shipments will have plummeted by around 12 percent at the close of 2009, “as the global economy continues to weaken, users stretch PC lifetimes and PC suppliers grow increasingly cautious.”

In terms of actual units, Gartner’s estimated shipment decrease of 11.9 percent leaves a yearly total of around 257 million computers, which, when broken down by hardware category, translates into a drop of 32 percent for desktops and a 9 percent gain for notebooks.

If PC shipments are struck by anything approaching Gartner’s proffered 12 percent figure, the cumulative recessional effects will ultimately dwarf the market’s current front-running year for shipment decline, which saw a comparatively modest drop of 3.2 percent in 2001.

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