Worldwide PC sales rise on strength of Asia

Worldwide PC sales rise on strength of Asia

WASHINGTON (AFP): Strong demand from Asia and Latin America helped push sales of personal computers higher in the second quarter, while growth slowed in the US market, according to two studies released Monday.

California-based Dataquest said worldwide shipments of PCs rose 18 percent in the second quarter of this year.

But growth in the United States -- where the market is more saturated -- slowed to 11.5 percent in the April-June period, down from the 14.1 percent in the first quarter and sharply lower than the 32.6 percent growth in the same period a year ago, Dataquest said.

A separate report by Massachusetts-based International Data Corp., which uses a different method of calculation, found global PC shipments up 14.5 percent from a year earlier to 30.1 million units in the second quarter.

According to IDC, PC sales in the United States were up only 7.2 percent.

The two reports said PC sales growth was highest in Japan and developing markets of Asia and Latin America, where economic recovery is fueling demand.

"Economic expansion in Japan, Asia/Pacific and Latin America continue to drive growth" in PC shipments, said Dataquest.

"Preliminary regional results show the United States and Europe at the bottom of the worldwide growth table for a second consecutive quarter, with saturation continuing to be a significant challenge to future growth."

IDC also cited strong growth in the Asia-Pacific markets.

"Markets in Asia/Pacific continued their strength as summer promotions in China and affinity marketing programs in Australia expanded consumer demand," IDC said.

"The US commercial market began to recover from Y2K-related sluggishness," said IDC analyst Gabrielle Griffith.

"But corporate America is still slow to adopt Windows 2000 and seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach to upgrading hardware."

Compaq remained the top seller worldwide in the quarter, with a market share of 12.6 percent compared to 10.6 percent for Dell and 7.1 percent for Hewlett-Packard.

Dell remained on top in the United States with and 18.7 percent market share to 14.5 percent for Compaq and 10.4 percent for Hewlett-Packard.

The top three vendors in US and global markets were ranked by IDC in the same order as by Dataquest.