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.