Gartner: Global PC shipments to suffer sharpest decline in 2009

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2 (Chinese media) -- Economic downturn will drag global

personal computer (PC) shipments to its steepest decline in 2009, market

research company Gartner predicted on Monday.

PC shipments are expected to decline 11.9 percent from last year to 257

million units in 2009, Gartner said.

The industry previously experienced its worst decline in 2001 when PC

shipments contracted 3.2 percent.

"The PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions as the global economy

continues to weaken, users stretch PC lifetimes and PC suppliers grow

increasingly cautious," George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said in a

statement.

Both emerging and mature markets are projected to suffer unprecedented

market slowdowns, according to Gartner.

"Growth in both emerging and mature markets will be driven by similar

dynamics even if the precise impacts vary somewhat," Shiffler noted.

"Slower GDP growth will generally weaken demand and slow new penetration,

lengthening PC lifetimes will reduce replacements, and supplier caution will

keep inventories at historic lows until confidence in a recovery eventually

firms," he said.

Mini-notebook will be a bright spot, but the low-cost computers remain too

few to counter overall market challenges, even as they can cushion the overall

PC shipments slowdown, Gartner said.

Worldwide mobile PC shipments this year are expected to reach 155.6 million

units, a 9-percent increase from 2008. The growth will be substantially boosted

by continued growth in mini-notebook shipments.

Gartner's predictions showed that excluding mini-notebooks, other mobile PC

shipments will grow just 2.7 percent in 2009.

Worldwide mini-notebook shipments are forecast to total 21 million units in

2009, up from 11.7 million units last year.

However, mini-notebooks are projected to represent just 8 percent of PC

shipments in 2009, Gartner said.