Worldwide 2nd-Quarter PC Shipments Miss Forecasts, Reports Say
San Francisco, July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide shipments of personal computers rose slightly less than forecast in the second quarter as consumer sales slowed and shortages of microprocessors hampered supply, two market-research firms said.
PC unit shipments rose 14.5 percent from the year-earlier quarter, IDC Corp. said. IDC had expected growth of just above 15 percent. Dataquest Inc. said global shipment rose 18 percent, short of its forecast for 18.5 percent. U.S. shipments rose 7.2 percent, IDC said. Dataquest pegged U.S. growth at 11.5 percent.
The paltry U.S. growth was largely a result of slower consumer sales and constraints on the microprocessor supply. The second quarter is typically slow while buyers wait for new products, and demand last year was unusually strong because of offers of free PCs or very low-priced models. The processor shortage is expected to hamper third-quarter shipments.
``Shortages had a negative impact on the second quarter, and it will be an issue in the third quarter, too,'' said Anne Bui, an IDC analyst.
Dell Computer Corp., the No. 1 direct seller of computers, and Hewlett-Packard Co., the No. 3 PC maker, had the strongest growth in both worldwide and U.S. unit shipments. Dell, which ranked No. 1 in U.S. shipments, continued to gain on Compaq Computer Corp. for the top spot in the global market.
Dell's U.S. shipments soared almost 27 percent, and worldwide shipments surged 22 percent, according to IDC. Dell's U.S. market share rose to 19.6 percent, and global market share increased to 11.5 percent, IDC said.
Hewlett-Packard, Compaq
Hewlett-Packard's U.S. shipments climbed 45 percent, giving it 10.4 percent of that market, and worldwide units grew by 34 percent, for 7.5 percent of the market, IDC said.
Compaq's shipments fell 5.6 percent in the U.S. and rose 6.1 percent worldwide. It has 13.2 percent of the global market, down from 14.3 percent in the year-ago quarter, according to IDC.
IDC and Dataquest showed International Business Machines Corp. losing market share as shipments fell both worldwide and in the U.S. IBM decided earlier this year to stop selling consumer PCs in U.S. retail stores, which a dip of 18.5 percent for second- quarter shipments from the year-ago period reflects.
Dataquest said increasing saturation in the U.S. large corporate accounts and also in homes hampered U.S. unit growth.
``Saturation is a major issue in the U.S. market,'' said Charles Smulders, a Dataquest analyst. He said Dataquest may reduce slightly its current forecast for U.S. shipment growth of 15.2 percent.
Dataquest still expects worldwide PC shipments to rise 18.3 percent this year. IDC is forecasting 17.7 percent annual growth for 2000.
Jul/24/2000 0:02 ET |
