PC growth propped up by emerging markets

By Henry Leineweber, Resource Recycling

The volume of PC shipments ended 2011 in positive territory, reversing a trend of steady declines according to IT market research firm International Data Corporation.

Worldwide PC shipments grew 1.8 percent in 2011 versus 2010, although that average is somewhat misleading. Emerging markets grew at 11.6 percent for the year, while mature markets – defined as the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and Japan – decline 8.8 percent versus 2010. Even among the growing emerging economies, shipments of desktop PCs continued to be anemic, growing at just 3.5 percent in 2011, while shipments of laptops and portable computers increased over 19 percent during the same period.

While IDC cites the explosive growth of tablets as one primary reason for the decline in new PC shipments in mature markets, it also predicts 2012 PC shipments to increase 7 percent in emerging markets and 2.3 percent in mature markets, thanks to expected increased unit sales in the second half of the year, correlating with the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.

Still, the latest numbers, as well as IDC's analysis, again point to dwindling prospects for the traditional desktop PC, as both consumer preference and computing technology shift toward lighter, low-power, portable machines.

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