PC shipments up 24.2 to 27.4 percent in Q1 2010

Depending on who you listen to, PC shipments were up 24.2 percent or 27.4 percent in the first quarter of the year. According to IDC shipments grew 24.2 percent to 79.13 million units, you can read their take over here.

The worldwide PC market grew 24.2% in the first quarter of 2010 (1Q10) compared to one year ago, when the market declined by almost 7% - the lowest growth since 2001. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, both Desktop and Portable PC shipments exceeded expectations, with solid growth rates driven by sustained consumer demand and renewed commercial buying. The year-over-year gain in Desktop PCs reverses a series of quarterly declines that began in 3Q08. IDC attributes the renewed growth to continued recovery in emerging markets, improved business sentiments, and growth of specialized designs like All-in-One PCs.

"The strong first quarter builds on the fourth quarter rebound and shows rising confidence in the PC supply chain and commercial client base along with persistent demand from consumers," said Loren Loverde, vice president, IDC Worldwide Trackers. "The commercial gains are a cornerstone of market rebound that we've been expecting and are now seeing in the data. Despite continued strengthening of commercial demand and solid consumer and emerging market results, year-on-year growth is likely to slow in coming quarters as year-ago comparisons get more difficult. This is part of an expected recovery trend that should include strong second quarter performance and lift growth for the year to 15% or higher."

"The U.S. PC market exhibited encouraging signs of recovery in the first quarter. While part of this growth is a correction from a dismal 1Q09, some of it was driven by new PC refresh projects in the commercial markets. This is in addition to ongoing consumer appetite for more mobile devices as price points remain attractive and the multi-device per user environment expands," said Andrew Hanson, research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Going forward, we expect tremendous activity from the supply side around product innovation and new form factors and designs, which are likely to drive interest among consumers. As such, we remain optimistic about PC growth this year and next, but caution that sustainable growth in the PC space will also require sustained economic growth."

Gartner's analysis on the other hand can be found over here. They write shipments grew 27.4 percent to 84.34 million units.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 84.3 million units in the first quarter of 2010, a 27.4 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. These first quarter results have exceeded Gartner's earlier market outlook. Gartner had been expecting first quarter PC shipments to grow 22 percent.

"The stronger-than-expected growth was led by a robust recovery in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) PC market, which grew 24.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "All other regions recorded double-digit growth rates, although the U.S. and Latin America were slightly lower than what we had expected."

"These first quarter results indicate that the professional PC market is gradually picking up, driven by PC replacements in mature markets," Ms. Kitagawa said. "With a relatively positive macroeconomic outlook, business demand was more forthcoming. Major PC replacement demand driven by Windows 7 will become more apparent in the second half of 2010 and the beginning of 2011."

Both firms also publish lists of the biggest PC vendors. Here's the top 5 global PC vendor list from IDC:

HP: 19.7%

Acer: 13.6%

Dell: 13.3%

Lenovo: 8.8%

Toshiba: 5.8%

And here's the one from Gartner:

HP: 18.2%

Acer: 14.2%

Dell: 12.1%

Lenovo: 8.3%

ASUS: 5.5%

Toshiba: 5.5%