After a rough 2009, PC sales are starting to pick-up, particularly on the consumer side. HardwareCentral details where the growth is coming from based on reports from research firms Gartner and IDC.
The enterprise/professional market has different needs and a different sales cycle than consumers. The research firms detail where the big IT suppliers are seeing growth and where sales are headed.
The two biggest market researchers following technology, Gartner and IDC, issued their first-quarter 2010 PC sales reports, showing a considerable rebound after the collapse one year ago.
Of course, sales had to start going up eventually after the market’s implosion, when fourth-quarter 2008 PC sales fell 10.1 percent year-over-year, followed by another 6.5 percent drop in the first quarter of 2009.
IDC puts worldwide PC growth at 24.2 percent, while Gartner says 27.4 percent. Even though Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) chief Paul Otellini said on Intel’s first-quarter conference call that sales were up across the board on all product lines, Gartner says it’s still primarily sales of low-end PCs — not machines typically targeted at large businesses.
“It’s still mainly consumer. That’s our early estimate. After holiday sales, consumer sales were still strong,” said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
However, the professional market is also showing signs of life, she said. U.S. sales rose 20 percent during first quarter, up 30 percent in consumer and 10 percent in professional sales.