Global PC shipments fall

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 92.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, down by 0.2 per cent from a year earlier due to shortages in hard disc drives, the weak economic climate and competition from other devices such as tablets, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. Over the full year 2011, PC shipments — including notebooks — grew by 1.6 per cent to 352.4 million. The IDC expected the market to slow further in the first quarter of 2012 as the full impact of the HDD shortage is felt, and then recover to over 15 per cent growth by the fourth quarter.
Annual 2012 shipments are forecast at 371 million, an increase of 5.4 per cent, followed by annual growth of over 11 per cent in 2013. In terms of vendors, HP remained market leader in the fourth quarter of 2011 with a 16.3 per cent share, despite seeing its shipments fall by 16 per cent from a year earlier.
Lenovo grew its share to 14 per cent from 10.3 per cent a year earlier, and Dell edged up to 12.9 per cent from 12 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Acer lost almost one point to 10.6 per cent of shipments, and Asus grew to 6.7 per cent.