Gartner: Global PC market up 13.4% in 2007

Europe, Middle East and Africa continue to be the largest PC market in 2007

The fourth quarter of 2007 mirrored the entire year when it came to worldwide PC shipments.

Industry analyst firm, Gartner, released a report this week showing that worldwide PC shipments hit 75.9 million units in the last quarter of last year - a 13.1 per cent increase over the same quarter in 2006. Similarly, Gartner noted that global PC shipments totaled 271.2 million units in all of 2007, a 13.4 per cent increase over 2006 numbers.

The US PC market grew 5.3 per cent in 2007, with shipments hitting 64.2 million units, according to Gartner. US shipments topped Gartner's estimates, the company said.

"The Europe, Middle East and Africa region continued to be the largest PC market in 2007," Gartner analyst, Mikako Kitagawa, said in a statement. "Asia-Pacific took over as the second-largest PC market during the fourth quarter. [Last year] showed a clear indication of the worldwide PC market landscape: strong growth in emerging regions, such as Asia-Pacific, and slower growth in markets such as the United States."

Hewlett-Packard extended its lead over Dell in the PC market, which includes desktops and laptops, according to Gartner's figures. HP grabbed 18.2 per cent of the market share last year, up from 15.9 per cent in 2006. Dell weighed in with 14.3 per cent, down more than 1 per cent from the 15.9 per cent it grabbed in 2006. Well behind the two leaders were Acer with 8.9 per cent of market share, Lenovo with 7.4 per cent and Toshiba with 4 per cent.

"HP established a solid number one position in 2007," Kitagawa said. "Robust consumer and mobile PC sales across all regions were two main drivers of HP's overall growth. The company experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors in fourth quarter of 2007, as its shipments increased 23.3 per cent in the quarter."

Late last month, rival industry analyst firm, IDC, warned that a slowing US economy will likely lead to declining PC processor sales in the first months of 2008. Since PC chip sales are directly tied to PC sales, the warning extended into the desktop and laptop market, as well.

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