PC Sales Crashing Like an Unpatched Windows Machine
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 2, 2009 at 11:00 AM PT
Billionaire Warren Buffett says the economy will be in a shambles throughout “2009–and, for that matter, probably well beyond.”
The same can apparently be said for the PC market. Research outfit Gartner on Monday warned that PC sales will suffer the “sharpest unit decline in history” this year. Gartner (IT) expects the PC industry to ship just 257 million units this year. That’s an 11.9 percent decline from 2008, one that easily eclipses the previous worst decline in 2001, when shipments fell 3.2 percent.
“The PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions as the global economy continues to weaken, users stretch PC lifetimes and PC suppliers grow increasingly cautious,” said Gartner research director George Shiffler. “Slower GDP growth will generally weaken demand and slow new penetration, lengthening PC lifetimes will reduce replacements, and supplier caution will keep inventories at historic lows.”
I’ll say. Gartner believes desktop shipments will decline a staggering 31.9 percent from 2008. Even an expected 80 percent spike in netbook sales, the lone bright spot in the market, won’t do much to temper that. Bad news for PC manufacturers like Dell (DELL) and HP (HPQ), and for suppliers like Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) as well.
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