PC market: growth downward for IDC

IDC also, like what was announced last week by Gartner, cuts economic growth forecast for the PC market for 2011 and 2012, albeit with different proportions. The analyst firm expects a market growth of 2.8% for 2011, compared to the original estimate of 4.2%. Several reasons: a series of adverse circumstances among which the low propensity to spend by the public, the saturation in mature markets and the cannibalization of new emerging devices such as tablet.

The persistence of these circumstances, combined with growing concerns about the conditions in the economy of the United States and Europe, has led IDC also revise down growth forecasts for 2012 which increased from 10.2% to 9.3%. For the period 2013 to 2015 but IDC predicts that growth will settle back to around 11%.

During the second quarter of 2011, IDC reported a 2.7% growth in deliveries Gobal for the PC market, compared to the previous growth forecast of 2.9%. This is a result that is on target, even though the purchase of PCs in mature markets remained weak, particularly among the realities of the SMB (Small-Medium Business) and among consumers. The 'Western Europe saw a decline of 20% over the same period last year, while the U.S. market suffered from a delcino 5%.

IDC identifies, however, some positive factors including a sustained expenditure from the enterprise sector and an interesting thrust of emerging regions, embodied in particular by China overtaking the U.S. in terms of shipments of PC systems. The emerging market growth remains in double figures, indicating a clear distance from the decline in mature markets.

Jay Chou, senior research analyst for IDC, said: "Consumers have taken a step back because of economic conditions and consumer PCs have suffered because of the lack of attractive offers. With the enthusiasm for the mini notebook now behind us, the 'PC industry has had difficulty in expressing important features that can keep the audience interested and has consequently suffered from the competition for smart phones and media tablet that during the second quarter were sold respectively 107 million and 13.5 million units . Even the possible spin-off of HP's PC division has contributed to the uncertainty of the market, channel and corporate users who need to reconsider the next steps. "

Loren Loverde, IDC's vice president, Worldwide Consumer Tracker, said: "With the difficult situation of the economies and new products such as consumer and business spending money on the PC growth will remain weak in coming quarters. Nevertheless, the replacement of existing PCs, growth in emerging regions and a renewed offer for next year expected to take a good long-term growth. "

Posted by: Wasim Javed