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Global PC Shipments Projected to Rise 13%, Led by U.S., Europe
Santa Clara, California, Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Worldwide shipments of personal computers are projected to rise 13 percent next year, led by continued strength in Western Europe and the U.S and a rebound in Japan, a market research firm said.
The forecast is up from 11 percent expected growth this year, International Data Corp. said. Revenue will rise only half as much as unit shipments because of the growing popularity of low-cost PCs costing less than $1,000.
Shipments to Japan, the No. 2 market for PCs behind the U.S., and to other parts of Asia have been declining as economic troubles curtailed technology spending. Next year's forecast is based on the premise that the worst is over in most of Asia.
''We have reached the bottom in some of these markets,'' said Bruce Stephen, IDC's head of PC research.
Among PC makers doing well are Dell Computer Corp. and Apple Computer Inc., which could add as much as 1 percentage point to its market share with blockbuster sales of its new iMac home computer, Stephen said. Apple had slightly more than 3 percent market share in the most recent quarter.
International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. aren't doing as well, with IBM losing market share and H-P focusing on profitability instead of increasing its share, IDC said.
Next year's PC market will be driven by continued demand for low-cost PCs, a rebound in notebook-computer sales as prices fall and a push to buy computers before 2000, IDC said.
Growth could be stymied, IDC said, by continuing economic problems or a delay in Microsoft Corp.'s planned release of an updated version of its Windows NT operating-system software.
15:10:42 09/23/1998 |
