Falling prices in mobile computing and the proliferation of faster and cheaper communications infrastructure has seen the rate of PC shipments worldwide increase by 16 percent to top 71.9 million units in the latest quarter, research group Gartner reports.
Falling prices in mobile computing and the proliferation of faster and cheaper communications infrastructure has seen the rate of PC shipments worldwide increase by 16 percent to top 71.9 million units in the latest quarter, research group Gartner reports.<\/P>
The growth rate has been even faster in the Asia-Pacific region, Gartner says – but Australia appears to be lagging behind the global rate.<\/P>
Gartner’s survey of the worldwide PC market for Q2 2008 shows mobile PCs driving growth in all regions.<\/P>
The quarter also saw a sharp decline in the average selling price (ASP) of desktop PCs, particularly in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa on the back of economic worries.<\/P>
In Australia preliminary figures, due out next week, show growth in the double-digit range.<\/P>
“As a whole in Australia, mobile PCs, notebooks and laptops are driving demand,” Lillian Tay, Gartner principal analyst client computing market in Asia Pacific, told CDN. “In Australia we expect growth at a minimum of 10 percent for the period.<\/P>
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“The market for desktops is flat so the trend is for continuing demand for mobile PCs even for first time buyers,” she says.<\/P>
“We are seeing more and more adoption of mobile computing from young professionals. You only have to look at the stores, like Harvey Norman, which all have the presence of notebooks far outweighing desktops.”<\/P>
Tay says in the Asia-Pacific region, PC shipments totalled 20.1 million units, up 18.1 percent from the second quarter of last year.<\/P>
In the region mobile PC shipments grew 45.6 percent in the quarter,” Tay told CDN. “Prices have come down and performance increased.<\/P>
“They now represent not just a desktop replacement. There is so much more choice in models, specifications and form factors. You only have to go into any retail shop and the machines jump out at you with different colours and graphics. The current offerings also have better sound quality and prices have come down so much.”<\/P>
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