Tablets Took Bite Out of PC Shipments in ‘Weak’ Holiday Period, Analysts Say

Worldwide Q4 PC shipments totaled 93.5 million units in Q4, 3.1 percent more than a year earlier, according to preliminary figures from Gartner Group, but below its forecast of 4.8 percent growth. Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa cited competition from tablets, including the iPad, along with game consoles and other CE devices.

Although holiday PC sales were “weak,” because of competition for consumer spending, the professional market showed “steady growth,” driven by replacement purchases, he said. Results indicating that the PC market has recovered from the recession, returning to “double-digit growth” in 2010, were tempered by “intensified competition” in consumer PC spending that will present “challenges going forward,” he said. Hewlett-Packard remained the top PC vendor in Q4, with 18.8 percent market share, Gartner said, but its shipments dropped roughly 200,000 units from a year earlier.

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 19.1 million units in Q4 2010, a 6.6 percent drop, but better than Gartner’s projection of a 10 percent decline, the firm said.

IDC also released Q4 PC shipment data Thursday, with slightly different numbers but similar conclusions. Worldwide shipments inched up 2.7 percent, below growth projections of 5.5 percent, to 92.1 million units, the largest figure ever, the firm said. A strong “recovery” in the first half of 2010 fueled a 13.6 percent annual increase to 346.5 million units, but the consumer market softened because of competition from tablets, IDC said.

In the Asia/Pacific market, excluding Japan, PC shipment growth fell to the single digits, compared with peak unit growth of more than 30 percent a year earlier, IDC said.

The U.S. market was down 4.8 percent year over year in Q4, maintaining a 2010 trend that resulted from relatively high market penetration, a sense among consumers that their current PCs are “good enough,” and competition from other devices, IDC said. The situation is expected to continue in 2011, “if not worsen,” IDC said, as the coming wave of tablets “could put a dent in the traditional PC market."

For 2011, IDC has scaled back growth projections of 10 percent for the year over softening demand in Asia/Pacific and consumer fatigue in categories such as mini notebooks, according to Jay Chou, research analyst. But replacement purchases in the commercial segment and aggressive competition “should still support double-digit growth in the second half of the year,” he said.