In the fourth quarter of 2008, the worldwide PC industry suffered its worst growth rate since 2002 as worldwide shipments totaled 78.1 million units, a 1.1 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2007, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.
“The United States experienced steeper than expected shipment declines due to the recession. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region was also affected by the economic slow down across key countries,” said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner’s Client Computing Markets group, in the press release. “Asia/Pacific recorded the worst shipment growth since Gartner started its PC statistics research. Latin America met expectations, but its growth was much lower than in the past.”
The growth driver for the 2008 holiday PC season was the mini-notebook segment. With more vendors offering creative sales promotions, the mini-notebook segment outpaced overall mobile PC growth. However, PC revenue experienced a record decline. Steep average selling price (ASP) declines, as well as robust growth of low-priced systems, including mini-notebooks, contributed to this drop.
Hewlett-Packard managed to grow above the worldwide average in the fourth quarter of 2008, however its year-on-year growth was its lowest since its merger with Compaq in 2003. HP did well in EMEA by aggressively promoting the mini-notebook segment, but it was impacted by sales in the U.S. market.
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q08 (Thousands of Units)
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs and X86 servers.
Source: Gartner (January 2009)
Dell showed strong growth in Asia/Pacific, but it struggled to increase shipment volume in North America and EMEA in the fourth quarter of 2008. Acer continued to show exceptional growth with worldwide PC shipments growing 31.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. Acer’s sales were driven by low priced PCs such as mini-notebooks. Lenovo maintained the fourth position in the worldwide market in the fourth quarter, but it suffered a shipment decline for the first time since 2006.
In the U.S., the PC market in the fourth quarter of 2008 had its worst shipment decline since the last U.S. recession in 2001. PC shipments in the U.S. declined 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.
“The fourth quarter started out with a relatively optimistic view, but then it got worse every month,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “In the fourth quarter, U.S. businesses quickly cut IT spending with public sectors, including some government and education buyers, postponed PC procurement due to budget crisis concerns. PC vendors focused on the professional market were especially hit by the weakening market conditions. Overall, consumer mobile PC shipments showed strength, but the shipment growth was boosted by steep ASP declines which were further accelerated by the popularity of mini-notebooks.”
Dell maintained the No. 1 position in the U.S. PC market in the fourth quarter of 2008, but its shipments declined 16.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. Dell was impacted by a very weak professional market.
HP’s shipments in the U.S. market declined 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter, while Acer’s shipments increased 55 percent. As in the global market, Acer’s success was attributed to its offerings in the mini-notebook space.
Preliminary United States PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q08 (Thousands of Units)
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs and X86 servers.
Source: Gartner (January 2009)
In the fourth quarter of 2008, PC shipments in EMEA totaled 30.4 million units, a 4.9 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2007. This region had not seen growth rates drop to this level since the 2000/2001 period. The slowdown impacted all countries and segments. The consumer market was the least affected, with mobile PC growth in the high double-digits. However, much of this was due to the continued rollout of mini-notebooks.
In Asia/Pacific, PC shipments grew 1.8 percent with volume reaching 19.5 million units in the fourth quarter. The China and India PC markets accounted for approximately 65 percent of the market in Asia/Pacific in the fourth quarter, and these countries were impacted by a slow consumer market. PC shipments in China grew an estimated 0.8 percent, and 2.2 percent in India.
The PC market in Latin America grew 10 percent with shipments surpassing 7.2 million units in the fourth quarter. The general devaluation of local Latin American currencies is impacting foreign PC vendors as their systems are more expensive.
PC shipments in Japan grew 7 percent with shipments reaching 3.5 million units in the fourth quarter. The country was impacted by lower corporate demand and fewer shipments of spring consumer models that were launched in late December.
For the year, worldwide PC shipments totaled 302.2 million units in 2008, a 10.9 percent increase from 2007. The top 5 ranking remained unchanged compared to 2007. Dell recovered from its restructuring process in 2008, showing a slightly higher growth rate compared to the worldwide average. Lenovo continued to struggle outside of China’s market. Its attempt to enter the consumer markets was not successful in 2008. Toshiba grew faster than the worldwide average by heavily targeting the consumer market.
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2008 (Thousands of Units)
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs and X86 servers.
Source: Gartner (January 2009)
These results are preliminary. Additional research can be found on Gartner’s Computing Hardware section on Gartner’s Web site here.
Source: Gartner, Inc.
So, in other words, since the US pc market declined 10% in the 4thQ, then Apple’s increase of 8.3% means they gained 19.4% market share growth.
Marco – dude what are you smoking? Apple were fourth last year in the US and fourth this year. Get some glasses.
Note that Acer jumped in sales due to netbook demand. The question is are they making any money from those sales. My guess is that they are going down Compaq’s and Dell’s route. Sell lots for little or no profit. Works for a while but eventually they fail.
Apple’s plans are several years long. I’m sure that the pipeline for the next several years have Steve’s mark on them.
Still it’s a shame to hear that Steve health is worse than anticipated. Hopefully the layoff will help.
@ doggone,
Yes, you are right about last year. But Apple did slip to 4th spit from last quarter when they were number three ahead of Acer.
spot not spit^^^^^^^
Marco said: “no Ken… Apple went from 3rd spot to 4th…. “
Which may suggest something, but does not deny Ken’s “Apple’s increase of 8.3% means they gained 19.4% market share growth.”
Acer grew 55%, year over year, to place ahead of Apple in the US. Apple’s market share still grew 1.3%. Ken is, of course, WRONG, but you are every bit as mistaken in your analysis. Apple’s share of a declining market did increase, as did it’s total sales.
@ Mike
There’s netbook frenzy in those Q4 numbers. I’ll be interested in seeing Acer’s profit margin and comparing it to Apple’s.
Somehow I bet Apple’s profit on computer sales exceeds the combined profits (from computer sales) of every company ahead of them on the worldwide list.
@ Marco Marco
Just because you have a friend who works in retail (so did I) doesn’t mean he knows what the margin is. He may know that, for example, it cost a retailer $1,500 for a iMac which they in turn sell for $1,999 but unless you know the cost to produce that iMac (R&D;, parts, labor, packaging, marketing, etc) then you can’t calculate the true margin.
A wrong idea.
Why did Gartner change Apple’s 4Q07 number from 1.04 (6.1%) to 1.159 (6.7%)?
Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld, “According to Gartner Inc., Apple shipped 1.04 million machines in the last three months of 2007 [6.1% of the U.S. market], compared to 808,000 in the same quarter a year earlier, a 28% increase. “
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/16099/
I maintain a website that watches these numbers and noticed the discrepancy when I went to update these numbers.
You can view the chart at http://aaplinvestors.net/facts/marketshare/
Remember Apple is pushing it’s world wide presents, they have opened their first stores in Australia, China, Germany etc. This will help push their sales and put them on the world wide list. They have expanded their market reach throughout the US. Apple market share could jump as more people see the better usability of Macs, especially notebooks.
Snow Leopard has the potential to be a game changer. What will MS users think when they see their Mac friends computers become faster and more stable while they wait for Win 7 to be released months later. If Win 7 makes their PC slower and the new features can only be used on more expensive models, what happened with XP and Vista, the hatred of Windows will grow. (I have only met one person who loved Vista) Given MS track record on deployment it will probably be next year before Win 7 will roll out. That could slow down PC sales, and lower market share this year. Just like Vista.
This could be a great year for Apple.
@Marco
As others have pointed out… Growth is about growing revenue not just shipments or market share. Apple has proved this by generating more revenue per percent of market share than any of the PC vendors. Let’s see the market broken down by $ instead of units before we get too excited about the relative positioning of Apple, Acer, and others.
One, I was NOT wrong. You guys can’t do basic math. Apple’s US market share GROWTH was 19%, as I stated. You take its current share, 8.0% and divide by last year’s share, 6.7%, and voila, 19% market share growth in the US.
Intuitively, the US pc market units declined, Apple’s Mac shipments grew, then clearly Apple’s rate of market share growth is faster than its shipment growth.
Marco has reading comprehension problems. He’s a guy who has his little rant, and no matter people are talking about something else, he’s going to go off on his tangent. Ignore him.
@KenC
Dude, you can’t divide % market share year-on-year. You gotta divide units shipped 4Q08/4Q07, i.e. 1.255MM/1.159MM=1.0828, i.e. 8.3% growth.
peace
…..shipments growth (units) 8.3%, market share growth 1.3% (8-6.7)…