Computer shipments rose faster than expected in the second quarter, fueled by exceptional demand in emerging markets and a decline in prices in the US and Western Europe, a research group said on Wednesday.
Worldwide shipments increased 16 percent from a year ago to 71.9 million PCs, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc said. The company had predicted 11.2 percent growth.
Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa attributed some of the surge to ongoing trends: rising shipments to emerging markets such as China, Brazil, India and Russia; and the increasing number of computers per home thanks to the popularity of laptops.
But economic jitters in mature markets also had a surprisingly positive effect on PC shipments, Kitagawa said.
The analyst had forecast less than 2 percent growth in the US in the shadow of its mortgage and credit market turmoil.
But those troubles pushed down PC average selling prices, sparking a 4.2 percent increase in US shipments.
California-based Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) held on to the top spot in the global market, which it wrested from Dell Inc in 2006.
But as in the first quarter, Dell’s decision to expand sales of computers to retail stores helped it gain ground.
Texas-based Dell’s shipments grew 22 percent to 11.2 million computers, while HP shipments rose a slower 17 percent to 13 million.
HP’s market share of shipments held steady from the year-ago quarter, at 18.1 percent, while Dell’s share edged up to 15.6 percent from 14.8 percent.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Acer Inc and Japan-based Toshiba Corp rounded out Gartner’s list of the top five, each clocking in with less than 10 percent share.
Gartner upped its outlook last month for PC shipment growth for all of this year to 12.5 percent on the expected strength of worldwide laptop sales.
Despite the blockbuster shipments, Kitagawa said Gartner won’t automatically boost its outlook for this year again.
Along with the trends that supported growth in the second quarter, Kitagawa said she will also be weighing increasing demand for the nascent category of ultra-low-cost laptops and the effect of rising oil prices on manufacturing and shipping.
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