Sales of personal computers were hit by the global economic slowdown last year, showing their first yearly decline since 1985, but analysts said a fourth-quarter buying spurt is reason for optimism.
Gartner Dataquest reported Friday that worldwide PC shipments totaled 128 million units last year, a 4.6 percent decline from 2000. In the US, sales fell 11.1 percent to 44 million units, the research firm said.
"The PC industry has not experienced such a difficult year since 1985 when worldwide PC shipments declined 2.3 percent, and US PC shipments dropped 21.8 percent," Dataquest said in a statement.
The figures confirmed a survey from International Data Corp, which said fourth-quarter global PC sales were down 6.7 percent from the same period a year earlier, to 34.2 million.
But IDC said the fourth quarter showed improvement, up 16.9 percent, over a dreadful third quarter.
"Hard times persist in the PC market, but vendors are working diligently to stimulate growth and the outlook has started to improve in the United States and Europe," said IDC analyst Loren Loverde.
`Seeds of recovery are being sown'
"We don't expect a rapid turnaround, but the seeds of recovery are being sown. Depending on the economic environment, growth in the PC market may pick up more rapidly toward the end of the year."
Dell was the only major manufacturer to exhibit sales growth, with its worldwide shipments up 18.3 percent as it moved past Compaq to become the leading vendor, Dataquest said.
According to IDC, the only region of the world to show year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter was the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan.
But IDC said the sequential growth figure -- comparing the fourth quarter to the prior quarter -- provides a better indicator of the market's performance, with current sales "only slightly behind the average fourth-quarter sequential growth rate" of 19.8 percent from 1995 through 2000.
In the US, the fourth quarter was 10.1 percent lower than a year ago, but up 6.1 percent from the third quarter.
"US consumers finally pulled out some of the stops in the fourth quarter," said Roger Kay at IDC.
"After four quarters of subdued buying, consumers in the United States ended the year with a burst of activity, particularly in retail."
Dataquest analysts were more guarded in their outlook, expecting worldwide PC shipments to decline four percent in the first quarter of 2002 but to finish the year with a growth rate of 4 percent.
"While there is a mood of optimism in the industry, having made it through the bloodbath that was 2001, evidence for an immediate improvement in the first quarter of 2002 is far from clear," Charles Smulders said.
"On the positive side, it does not appear that the market is getting worse. We do not expect to see a significant upturn in growth until the fourth quarter of 2002. This based on an economic upturn in the second half of the year."
Separately, Dell issued an optimistic outlook for its own sales saying it expects shipments to show 50 percent sequential growth in the consumer market and revenue growth of about 40 percent for the quarter ending Feb. 1.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS