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Reports claim the U.S. is becoming less of an influence on the PC market as developing countries emerge

The signs of economic downturn are showing up in many places around the United States form large companies laying off employees by the thousands to the bust in the housing market leading to significantly increased numbers of home foreclosures.

The lagging economy is evident in the technology industry as well and shows in the significant layoffs coming from industry giants like Dell and Motorola. The PC industry is feeling the softening economy in the terms of fewer computers shipped in the United States.

According to research firm IDC worldwide PC shipments in Q1 2008 grew by 14.6% to 69.5 million units. Estimates for the quarter were 13.2% growth, so the industry exceeded expectations. Despite growth in PC shipments worldwide, the U.S. market slipped to a year-over-year growth rate of only 3.5%.

IDC reports that the U.S. share of the worldwide PC market fell by more than 2 points to 23% compared to the same period in 2007. This drop is showing that the U.S. is becoming less of an influence and emerging markets in developing countries are becoming more important for PC makers. The top five PC makers in the world according to IDC in order are HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

At the same time the top five PC makers were seeing drops in shipments in the U.S. Apple was shipping more systems. InformationWeek reports that Apple shipments grew 32.5% to one million units compared to 762,000 Macs shipped in the same quarter last year. IDC also released a report recently showing that Apple was now in the top five U.S. computer makers with a firm hold on the number 4 spot.

The gain in U.S. market share by Apple could be attributed to the often more affluent Apple buyers. With Mac systems costing more than similar PCs, the typical Apple buyer tends to be more affluent and possibly less affected by the slowing economy in America.

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Eh?
By therealnickdanger on 4/17/2008 1:36:46 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
PC Shipments Fall as Mac Shipments Grow


quote:
According to research firm IDC worldwide PC shipments in Q1 2008 grew by 14.6% to 69.5 million units. Estimates for the quarter were 13.2% growth , so the industry exceeded expectations . Despite growth in PC shipments worldwide, the U.S. market slipped to a year-over-year growth rate of only 3.5%.




RE: Eh?
By masher2 (blog) on 4/17/2008 1:43:21 PM , Rating: 4
Followed by this non-sequitor as well:
quote:
Despite growth in PC shipments worldwide, the U.S. market slipped to a year-over-year growth rate of only 3.5%.


I think the only thing that actually "fell" was the US share of the total market...and that's only because the foreign sector is growing faster comparitively.


RE: Eh?
By Locutus465 on 4/17/2008 1:49:57 PM , Rating: 5
This post seems like a desperate attempt to create a conneciton between apples shippment increase and some sort of PC shipment decrease when in fact there is no such connection not to mention the fact that PC shippments actually didn't slip.


RE: Eh?
By Moishe on 4/17/2008 1:54:21 PM , Rating: 5
Job's Reality Distortion Field is in full effect. Even Jason Mick admitted in his last article that the media loves Apple. Here is another great example of "OMG Apple r0xx0rs".


RE: Eh?
By therealnickdanger on 4/17/2008 3:51:29 PM , Rating: 5
Well, I suppose a title claiming, "Worldwide Computer Sales Continue to Grow" wouldn't have been sensational enough.

Just gotta grind the Mac VS PC thing all day, every day!

I still love you, DT.


RE: Eh?
By Adonlude on 4/18/2008 4:54:52 PM , Rating: 2
Perhaps we need a more "apples to apples" comparison?


RE: Eh?
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 4/17/2008 1:50:21 PM , Rating: 1
The title has been corrected.


RE: Eh?
By Locutus465 on 4/17/2008 2:29:15 PM , Rating: 2
Based on what I read it's more the relitive strength of US PC growth has slipped compared to developing nations which grew much faster...


RE: Eh?
By mondo1234 on 4/18/2008 3:39:56 PM , Rating: 2
If MS sold 100 mil copies of Vista in the first year, would that would mean that approx 40% of all new systems shipped with Vista?


RE: Eh?
By Moishe on 4/17/2008 1:48:25 PM , Rating: 2
I particularly like that this has been admitted in a "news" article.

quote:
With Mac systems costing more than similar PCs, the typical Apple buyer tends to be more affluent and possibly less affected by the slowing economy in America.


Are we finally going to admit that Macs costs more than PCs? :)

Also, Mac firmly holds the number 4 spot among US Pc manufacturers. That's not nothing, but it's hardly the #4 spot in the world.


RE: Eh?
By IGoodwin on 4/17/2008 1:50:19 PM , Rating: 3
Not only that, consider the following:

quote:
one million units compared to 762,000 Macs


Lets say Mac had a 5% share of the market last year, for estimation purposes. Then, total sales would be 20 times 762,000 at 15,240,000 units. 13.2% of that figure is 2,011,680. Which is larger than the 238,000 extra mac's sold by a wide margine; therefore, Unit sales in the US grew by 1,773,680. This would mean other computers had over a 7:1 sales ratio based on the increase in sales.

Therefore, the figures left out of this artical and the percentages presented give a very distorted picture.


RE: Eh?
By sprockkets on 4/17/2008 1:52:30 PM , Rating: 2
In other words, there is a decrease in the growth of PC shipments here in the USA.

Might have something to do with Vista. Don't take my word for it; take the word of all my clients I do business with.

To be fair, this recent install of Vista I am testing, I turned off Superfetch, and noticed the stupid endless hard drive activity dead, responsiveness back, and not having to wait as long for the computer to boot. And, per 3rd party sites, since Microsoft couldn't be bothered to note this on their site, I revealed the hidden cd audio device.

YMMV.


RE: Eh?
By MeTaedet on 4/17/2008 3:36:13 PM , Rating: 2
I am beginning to suspect that Shane McGlaun procured a cute guy holding an apple for Jason Mick to convince him to do his homework for him. Shane just swapped "Jason Mick" with "Shane McGlaun", it seems.


RE: Eh?
By Shane McGlaun (blog) on 4/17/2008 3:46:12 PM , Rating: 1
It's funny how if you write anything about Apple you are either called a hater or a fan boy. I am neither, the simple fact is that I don't care about Apple one way or the other. I owned a MacBook once, I hated it. I own an iPhone and love it. Give me the choice between a Mac and a PC and I'll take the PC every time. I'm rather indifferent to brands of computers on the whole. I roll my own.


RE: Eh?
By masher2 (blog) on 4/17/2008 3:57:28 PM , Rating: 6
quote:
It's funny how if you write anything about Apple you are either called a hater or a fan boy
That's why I stick to safe, noncontentious issues like climate change.


RE: Eh?
By darkpaw on 4/17/2008 4:05:56 PM , Rating: 2
OK, this has to be one of the best comments of the year so far.


RE: Eh?
By ImSpartacus on 4/17/2008 4:27:30 PM , Rating: 2
Quite epic indeed. Wow, that was brilliant.


RE: Eh?
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 4/17/2008 6:26:56 PM , Rating: 2
Brilliant :)


RE: Eh?
By just4U on 4/17/2008 11:46:50 PM , Rating: 2
I'd say give that man a " 7 " if there was such a thing! Sometimes you just have to save keeper lines like that for the oportune moment.


RE: Eh?
By ImSpartacus on 4/17/2008 11:59:03 PM , Rating: 2
Pfff, concrete numbers are for babies. Just put an infinity sign in there and be done.


RE: Eh?
By Locutus465 on