Led by note books, worldwide PC shipments surge in Q4

Shipments of personal computers worldwide surged more than expected in the fourth quarter, led by strong demand during the holiday season from the US consumers for low-cost notebooks.

Led by a holiday season featuring price cuts of unprecedented duration, the US personal computers market set a new record of nearly 20.7 million units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2009, resulting in year-on-year growth of 24 per cent, said industry tracker IDC, while releasing its quarterly survey yesterday.

Worldwide PC shipments increased 15 per cent, while IDC had expected global shipments to increase 11 per cent and US sales to rise by 6 per cent.

This marked the first quarter of double-digit volume growth since the 3Q of 2008. The fourth quarter results cap a strong second half of 2009, further cementing signs of a market revival and ending the year with year-on-year growth of 2.3 per cent, said the Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC.

"The US market exploded in the fourth quarter, driven by a series of factors contributing to the unexpected 24 percent year-on-year growth. First is the rubber-band effect and recovery from the year-ago quarter, which suffered from buyer contraction when the economic crisis was confirmed, said David Daoud, research manager, US Quarterly PC Tracker.

''The vendors responded with new low price points to stimulate demand and face competition. In this context, low-cost notebooks and mini notebooks were the biggest contributors to the successful fourth quarter, added Daoud .