PC shipments show strongest growth in 7 years

Global PC shipments exceeded 90 million units during Q4 2009 – a 22 per cent hike on the same period in 2008 and the strongest growth recorded in seven years, according to figures from market analyst Gartner.

While the robust figures are cause for optimism, it should be noted the PC market suffered a very weak Q4 2008, which fell on the cusp of the worldwide economic recession.

HP remained at the top in the worldwide PC vendor stakes, and took over previous leader Dell in the US market. Meanwhile Acer took the lead in the sub-$500 consumer mobile PC segment.

The EMEA market grew 3.6 per cent year-on-year in Q4 2009, though for the yea overall shipments were down 6.2 per cent.

What Gartner describes as consumer mini-notebooks – netbooks essentially – were the biggest growing format, unsurprisingly. The analyst estimates the devices make up 20 per cent of the Western European mobile market.

The firm predicts the growth curve will continue into 2010.

“The EMEA PC market was finally on the upward growth curve in the fourth quarter of 2009, and was the last major region across the world to do so,” said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst for Gartner’s Client Computing Markets group in EMEA. “The quarter over quarter increase was nearly 17 per cent indicating a return to seasonal patterns. We predict that the EMEA PC market will exhibit 5 percent growth in the second quarter of 2010, and we anticipate a 10 percent growth for 2010.”