Global PC shipments rose 2.3% year on year in the third quarter of 2009. The increase is an important continuation of recovery from year-on-year declines of 6.8% in the first quarter and 2.4% in the second quarter of this year. All regions except Japan either met or surpassed expectations. Portable PCs continue to account for the majority of volume and growth, with “netbooks” still making a substantial contribution.
“Despite the ongoing mix of gloom and caution on the economic front, the PC market continues to rebound quickly,” said Loren Loverde, program director for IDC’s Tracker Program, in the press release. ”The competitive landscape, the transition to portables, new and low-power designs, growth in retail and consumer segments, and the impact of falling prices are all reflected in the gains by HP and Acer, as well as overall market growth.”
“The continued strength of both the U.S. and worldwide PC business in the face of difficult economic environments underscores the value that both consumer and corporate buyers place on PCs,” according to Bob O’Donnell, vice president, Clients and Displays at IDC, in the press release. “With the forthcoming launch of Windows 7 and expected commercial refresh beginning in 2010, the prospects for future PC market growth are very solid.”
Regional Outlook
• United States – The U.S. PC market grew by 2.5% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Strong Portables sales were part of a back-to-school season that saw consumers continue to gravitate toward lower-cost Portables. Vendors with a solid retail presence were the main beneficiaries as HP regained the top spot in the U.S.
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) – Despite a year-over-year decline, the EMEA PC market reported sequential improvement as expected, driven by sustained consumer demand in Western Europe. Mini Notebooks continued to be pushed by both telcos and retailers and attracted more consumers while aggressive pricing also helped stimulate mainstream notebook purchases.
• Japan – The region is still feeling the pinch of tight business spending which has not been mitigated by Consumer purchases. The market saw a double-digit decline year over year and, contrary to past seasonal patterns, negative sequential quarterly growth. Although Portables performed slightly better than forecast, Desktop shipments declined further than expected, leading most vendors to see declining year-over-year growth.
• Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) – Both Desktop and Portable PC markets saw shipments expand nicely in APeJ during the third quarter. China and Taiwan in particular were ahead of forecasts as public sector projects were deployed more quickly than expected. Most other countries came in close to or just slightly ahead of projections.
Vendor Highlights
• HP – HP leveraged its advantage in Retail to benefit from the strong school season and grow 9.3% from last year. Growth was also aided by expansion of telco bundle offerings. The vendor performed above market in most regions but was especially strong in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan.
• Dell – Although it experienced a worldwide decline year over year, Dell saw solid growth in emerging markets, especially in APeJ, and a second consecutive quarter of growth brings encouraging signs that its retail development continues to pay off.
• Acer – Consumer demand for low-cost systems in the back-to-school season meant Acer’s Mini Notebooks were embraced by consumers. The vendor outperformed the market in virtually all regions.
• Lenovo – Lenovo capitalized on resurgent demand in APeJ, benefiting from government stimulus programs and successfully growing both its Commercial and Consumer shipments. The vendor also improved in other regions, with resulting market share gains worldwide. The company saw strong gains in Japan and EMEA while a slight decline was reported in the U.S.
• Toshiba – Toshiba performed above market in all regions except EMEA. It has continued to see solid results in the U.S. and Latin America, while seeing a sizable sequential jump in APeJ.
Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide PC Shipments, Third Quarter 2009 (Preliminary)
(Units Shipments are in thousands)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, October 14, 2009
Top 5 Vendors, United States PC Shipments, Third Quarter 2009 (Preliminary)
(Units Shipments are in thousands)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, October 14, 2009
Table Notes:
– Some IDC estimates prior to financial earnings reports, including Apple.
– Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users.
– PCs include Desktop and Portable PCs (including “netbooks”)
– PCs do not include x86 Servers or handhelds. Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.
IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker gathers PC market data in more than 80 countries by vendor, form factor, brand, processor brand and speed, sales channel and user segment. The research includes historical and forecast trend analysis as well as price band and installed base data.
Source: IDC
MacDailyNews Take: Nothing to see here, Mr. Ballmer. From 4.3% in Q3 05 to 5.8% in Q3 06 to 6.3% in Q3 07 to 8.6% in Q3 08 to 9.4% in Q3 09 – it’s all just a rounding error. No worries. Keep up the good work! 
@: ishkabibble,
Apple sells high end computers.
Most of the computers sold in the Third World are made in mom & pop shops and use bootleg copies of Microsoft’s software.
No high end sales in the Third World by any of the top 5.
MDN,
These are interesting, but would you please also start posting the ACTUAL/FINAL quarterly market share results (after Apple releases their numbers). IDC and Gartner often disagree on their estimates, which sometimes turn out to be incorrect.
Thank you!!
Hey, Apple?
KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!
Decades of propaganda led most prospectives techs to believe the only way to money was Windows, and you’re burying those who didn’t jump ship in ’95!
Ha ha ha ha!!! MDN nuked the 1st three posts in record time. Is there ANY place on the internet more insecure than MDN? What cowards.
Now the responses look ridiculous without the original posts. Nicely done MDN.
@Big Als MBP
Apple gets CRUSHED by the PC world in China.
Who cares about market share when your selling mostly netbooks. Give me Apple’s sales and margin to drive the stock price higher.
As the PC figures include cheap netbooks & eMachine desktops, their stats are fairly meaningless. But well done Apple. With updated Macs due soon, a slight reduction in prices should boost sales further!
Yea, China!!! If you count booltleg copies of Mindooze, sorry for the typo…Windows, M$ is way up front.
“From 4.3% in Q3 05 to 5.8% in Q3 06 to 6.3% in Q3 07 to 8.6% in Q3 08 to 9.4% in Q3 09 – it’s all just a rounding error.”
Here in the US, it’s no rounding error.
On the other hand, the Worldwide market share is probably around half that–a jump from 2% to 4%.
I agree with Al, above. It would be interesting to see Apple’s actual numbers versus IDC’s estimates. Especially considering that, according to IDC, those companies selling through retail did better than those companies without a retail presence.
“Who cares about market share when your selling mostly netbooks.”
Uh, if you’re selling low-cost netbooks, you care quite a bit about marketshare. Because when you’re only making $20 on a sale, you need lots of sales to make money.
“Ha ha ha ha!!! MDN nuked the 1st three posts in record time. Is there ANY place on the internet more insecure than MDN? What cowards.
Now the responses look ridiculous without the original posts. Nicely done MDN.”
You got that right…..MDN is certainly a very insecure place.
…and you think that Microsoft isn’t being crushed by the PC World in China. Poor deluded fools. The PC world in China will increasingly be Chinese at least in terms of making money and a lot of American and other companies will be finding that out as they fight over market share there.
I will gladly take the profits that consistantly come with +$1000 computers. +30% margins on +$1000 is always more than 10% margins on $500 computers. I will take the bank roll everytime.
And to the ignorant, keep your blissful selves in that world of windows. Openmindedness would probably be more than you all could handle.
“!Ishkabibble
Ha ha ha ha!!! MDN nuked the 1st three posts in record time. Is there ANY place on the internet more insecure than MDN? What cowards.”
Yes, this is Mac Daily News… An acceptable post would be something intelligent like, “Wooooo Microsoft is TOAST, I just know it. I think they’ll be bankrupt in 2011!!!!! Go Steve!!!!!!</b></i>
I don’t know what ishkabibble (a.k.a. Rattymouse?) posted, but it likely deserved to be deleted. Based on some of the stuff that hasn’t been deleted, a posting would have to be pretty extreme to get censored.
Keep in mind that this is MDN’s forum and they can moderate it as they see fit. If you don’t like it, then don’t post on MDN.
MDN is in the Apple news business (Mac, iPhone, iPod, AppleTV) and sometimes leans too far in favor of Apple and is products. But MDN also occasionally points out flaws in the Mac and MacOS X.
Can anybody provide Apple’s share of worldwide sales and a comparison to where it was this time last year? Also I’d like to see the same information broken down on a regional basis as well with Apple’s share included. Anything less only gives a partial snapshot.
The above information is like saying a country has an increased it’s growth rate but their export share is less to what it was a year ago. Alternatively, it may be the other way round but we don’t know because because we only have access to part of the information.
sadly, Big Al is right. Even if Apple outperforms the market and gains a market share of ~1% per year, it will still take another 30-40 years before fatass Ballmer will even notice. Still, Apple has good momentum and will do well over the next many years. MS may or may not have a bright future ahead — it depends on whether Chinese customers ever actually pay Microsoft for their software.
APeJ is too big a market to ignore, but today the market there is predominantly pirates or bottom-of-the-barrel price hunters. Apple is wise to take the high road and serve premium markets first. Porsche and BMW prove that’s a highly lucrative marketspace — and one that MS has largely lost due to both poor quality hardware and software.
This has never been the right way to look at this.
Apple is the #1 Mac vendor in the world.
Apple is the #1 OS X vendor in the world.
“Ishkababble-on”
Why not. It’s good Karma to delete post that fall into the world of pure idiotic reasoning.
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Who cares about units. What are the market share numbers when dollars are counted?
Guys – the big deal is that as Apple gains more share its cost of goods per unit goes down. They did the same thing with the iPod. Given that Apple are going against an established market, their growth is obviously slower.
But get this, they are making 30-40% profit on every unit sold. Each time the share goes up and unit sales increase Apple make even more money OR they can drop the price a bit to maintain the margin and be even more competitive.
Apple are almost making half the money that M$ does based mostly on hardware sales. And this is only the beginning.
I love the smell of rounding errors in the morning. It smells like… victory.
A couple of thoughts.
First, on deleted posts, its a real shame that a few jerks are choosing to be jerks and ruining the convenience for the rest of us of not having to enter YA password. Eternal September strikes again.
Second, on the topic at hand, there’s always more than one way to look at numbers. Always.
What’s beyond reproach is that Apple makes a much better profit %, but sells fewer units.
From there, its just that question of what numbers are important to you, and why.
From a business perspective, if you really think about it, if a business can’t make a return that’s clearly better than just leave their money in a bank account earning interest, then they should get out of the manufacturing business before their stockholders catch on (and cash out).
And this is precisely the key issue with the current business model of making a proverbial $10 profit on a $399
netbook: a simple bank account which delivers the same intestment return with *zero* risk, so you really have to decide what’s really in it for the company to sell that (effectively unprofitable) product.
From the consumer’s perspective, you could just say you don’t care because you got a bargain. But that’s today, and if that supplier goes away, then what are you going to do next time? Sure, you can simply buy from the next cheap vendor, but the paradigm is that you’re chopping down trees in an unsustainable fashion, and will inevitably run out of trees ..and the first ones gone will be the cheap ones.
-hh
-hh,
You make a valid point if we’re just talking about (next to worthless) no name brands, which is what you are saying when writing about a computer where you only make a $10 profit.
My issue is that the top five vendors for world shipments make a damn sight more than ten bucks per unit. Sure Apple makes a lot more per unit but where is Apple in these set of statistics? We don’t know because the figures aren’t supplied. Any way you look at these figures it’s just half a picture and without the rest of the numbers the excercise is just plain useless.