IDC: PC shipments looking up
- — 08 September, 2000 14:31
Japan's economic rebound and consumer purchases of PCs are predicted to fuel growth of 35 per cent for the third quarter, ending September 30, compared to the same period in 1999, according to IDC research released Thursday. The rest of Asia is seeing similar growth -- 36 per cent -- based on thriving markets for consumer desktops and portables.
While there's strong growth in Asian markets like Korea, "when you look at Asia-Pacific you're looking at China. It's under-penetrated," said Bruce Stephen, group vice president for worldwide personal systems research at IDC. "It's a situation where they're adopting PCs at home and in business at an accelerated rate."
IDC forecasts unit volume in the worldwide PC market of 33.4 million this quarter, an 18.5 per cent increase over the same quarter in 1999 and a 10.1 per cent increase from the second quarter of 2000.
"The PC market is in fairly good shape globally," Stephen said. "There's been a lot of discussion this year about softness in the market. That's been concentrated in the corporate arena. The rest of the market is solid. We do know that there's improvement in growth over the last quarter. I think that the portable PC market is still strong. The small business market is good."
