Date: 09/06/2011

PC shipments of 81.3 M units in the 1st Q2011, down 0.3 % an year ago

IHS iSuppli research has reported the worldwide PC shipments amounted to 81.3 million units in the first quarter of 2011, down 0.3 percent from 81.6 million during the first quarter of 2010.

The other market observations shared by IHS iSuppli includes:

Three out of the world's Top 5 PC makers suffered year-over-year declines in shipments during the quarter. No. 3-ranked PC maker Acer, which sells a high proportion of netbooktype PCs that face a direct competitive threat from media tablets, bore the brunt of the downturn, with first-quarter shipments plunging 20.4 percent to 9.2 million units, down from 11.6 million during the same period in 2010.

The increasing momentum of the media tablet market, led by the iPad, is creating a difficult environment for the PC industry, with all the attention surrounding tablets contributing to weak consumer demand for PCs in the first quarter. And though strong, corporate PC demand wasn't enough to offset the decline in consumer sales.

Exactly to what extent tablets are cannibalizing PC sales remains unclear. However, the rising number of tablet models on the market, along with certain high-profile product launches during the first quarter, caused confusion among consumers on how to view the tablet platform against the PC. Such uncertainty on the part of consumers contributed to the PC sales slump in the first quarter.

The decline came as somewhat of a surprise, given that the fourth quarter represented the best period ever for global PC sales as PC shipments hit a new quarterly record, blowing past the previous high of 88.9 million units set in the fourth quarter of 2009. Corporate demand had been driving growth of the market.

Nonetheless, PC sales growth should return later in the year despite the first-quarter weakness. The global PC market in 2011 will expand by 8 percent to 373 million units, up from 345 million in 2010, compared to 14 percent growth in 2010, IHS predicts.

Hewlett-Packard Co. continued its reign as the No.1 PC vendor in the first quarter of 2011, with a market share of 18.9 percent. The company suffered a 2.1 percent decline in sales compared to the same time a year ago given the difficult conditions in the consumer market.

Dell continued to hold onto the No. 2 position over third-ranked Acer during the same period, with a market share of 12.9 percent. Rounding out the Top 5 were Lenovo and Toshiba, which-coincidentally-were the only Top 5 PC original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to achieve growth in their total PC shipments over those from the first quarter of 2010. Fourth-ranked Lenovo and fifth-ranked Toshiba achieved market share positions of 10.0 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.