January 19, 2001
Tech Center
Domestic Growth in PC Market
Hits Slowest Rate Seen in 7 Years
By PUI-WING TAM
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The U.S. personal-computer market experienced its most sluggish
quarterly growth in at least the past seven years, new figures suggest,
walloped by PC saturation and a stock-market downturn.
According to a widely watched report from research firm Gartner
Dataquest, of San Jose, Calif., PC shipments in the U.S. in 2000's fourth
quarter grew by just 6.4%, or 13.2 million units, over the 1999 period, the
worst showing since Gartner started keeping quarterly records in 1993.
Meanwhile, world-wide PC shipments only
rose 10.1%, or 37.9 million units, hampered
particularly by weak buying in the U.S. and
Europe. Gartner had expected world-wide
growth of 17% in the fourth quarter.
"It's a very unusual set of numbers," said
Gartner research fellow Martin Reynolds, an
author of the report. "Growth for PCs was
even slower than we had expected. There is
saturation going on -- everybody already has a
PC."
In addition, the stock-market downturn affected consumer-buying habits,
including PC demand, the report said.
The report is the latest disappointing news to hit the beleaguered computer
industry, which is experiencing maturing growth and suffering the effects of
a market downturn. Last week, Gateway Inc., of San Diego, reported
worse-than-expected fourth-quarter results and announced layoffs. This
week, Apple Computer Inc., of Cupertino, Calif., also missed earnings
expectations.
In the report, Gartner Dataquest noted that the unit growth of different PC
makers in the U.S. was wildly inconsistent compared with previous
quarters. While Dell Computer Corp.'s fourth quarter 2000 growth rose
37.7% and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s growth jumped 20.7%, for example,
other vendors fared far worse. Compaq Computer Corp.'s growth, for
instance, dropped 8.7%, while Gateway fell 7.1% in the fourth quarter.
"This indicates there is a lot of market-share shift going on," said Mr.
Reynolds. "We've seen growth disparities before, but never of this scale."
Mr. Reynolds said the PC cycle was reaching its low after a banner 1999,
when companies and individuals rushed to purchase new PCs to avoid the
year 2000 bug. The surge of buying in late 1999 contributed to a saturation
of PCs. PC penetration of U.S. households exceeds 63%, he added.
Write to Pui-Wing Tam at pui-wing.tam@wsj.com |
