19 Jan Gartner says global PC market expanded 13 percent in 2007
Stamford, Conn. – While there is uncertainty as to how long IT spending growth will last, the worldwide personal computer market grew by 13.4 percent in 2007, according to preliminary figures from Gartner, Inc.
Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, said worldwide PC shipments exceeded 271 million units last year. Amid concerns of a slowing economy, the industry ended the year with fourth quarter PC shipments of 75.9 million, a 13.1 percent jump over the same period of 2006.
Hewlett-Packard led vendors worldwide with 49.4 million shipments and a global market share of 18.2 percent, followed by Dell, Inc., which had 38.7 million shipments and a market share of 14.3 percent. The figures include desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, and X86 servers.
The U.S. PC market grew by 5.3 percent in 2007 on shipments of 64.2 million, and ended the year better than expected with fourth quarter shipments of 17 million. That represents a 7.2 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2006.
Gartner, which released the figures as fears of an economic slowdown intensified and as the Bush Administration pitched an economic stimulus proposal, stressed that the figures are preliminary and that final statistics would be available soon.
In terms of overall IT spending, a recent Wisconsin Technology Network survey of state CIOs indicates that a majority of respondents, 30.1 percent, expect their IT spend to be flat in 2008. A total 19.2 percent anticipate 1 to 3 percent increase, and a similar percentage foresees a 4 to 6 percent increase, while 17.8 percent envision an IT spending increase above seven percent.
In the same survey, 6.8 percent of respondents predict a one to three percent decrease in IT spend, 2.7 percent forecast a four to six percent drop, and 4.1 percent anticipate a decline of seven percent or more.
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