PC sales to recover faster than expected - Gartner

Research house Gartner has raised its forecast for 2010 worldwide PC shipment growth to 20% on the back of signs that the market is finally beginning to stabilise after a sustained period of volatility.

Gartner said back in December that the global PC sector would grow 13% this year, but it now expects that number to be considerably higher after revising its valuation of the market to 366 million units.

The company also has encouraging news for PC vendors concerned that any growth in volume is likely to be undermined by falling price points and higher consumption of entry-level devices. It predicts the value of the market will increase to 12% this year, up from its initial forecast of just 2%.

All regional markets should return to growth and exhibit more normal seasonality in 2010, according to Gartner, which believes accelerating home PC demand and a rise in professional replacements will help the sector to put its recent troubles behind it.

"The PC industry will be overwhelmingly driven by mobile PCs, thanks to strong home growth in both emerging and mature markets," predicted George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

"Mini-notebooks are again forecast to boost mobile PC growth in 2010, but their contribution is expected to decline noticeably afterward, as they face growing competition from new ultra-low-voltage (ULV) ultra-portables and next-generation tablets. Desk-based PC shipment growth will be minimal and limited to emerging markets," he added.

Shiffler says that mobile PCs will drive 90% of PC growth over the next three years and account for almost 70% of all shipments by 2012. At the moment, mobile PCs represent 55% of the market.