Not sure if this was posted
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday March 9, 3:19 pm Eastern Time
(Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.)
Healthy Q1 PC demand, 1999 price pressure seen
NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - The research firm International Data Corp. said Tuesday it expects healthy first quarter demand for personal computers, led by vibrant U.S. and Western European markets, but sees PC prices continuing to weaken during 1999.
Framingham, Mass.-based IDC expects the number of PCs shipped worldwide in the first quarter to grow 14.1 percent and sees the Asia-Pacific market, excluding Japan, showing continuing signs of a rebound.
Following a well-established seasonal pattern, first-quarter volume is expected to fall 14.7 percent from the 1998 fourth quarter, IDC said.
It expects 103.2 million PCs to be shipped from factories in 1999, an increase of 14.3 percent from 1998.
Signs of continuing price pressure in the PC market are reflected in IDC's outlook for growth in the dollar value of PC shipments: It sees a rise of just 4.8 percent in 1999, to $178.4 billion.
Low projected growth in the value of 1999 PC shipments shows the continued slide in consumer, commercial desktop and portable PC prices, IDC said.
On a worldwide basis, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) was the top PC seller in the 1998 fourth quarter, lifting its market share by a fraction to 15.3 percent.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) was No. 2 with a 9.7 percent market share, down slightly from a year earlier. Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq:DELL - news) was third, increasing its market share to 8.4 percent from 6.2 percent.
(Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update |
