PC Market Accelerates (IDC Press Release)

[groovebuster]

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., April 15, 2004 – Following solid growth in the second half of 2003, the PC market remained strong in the first quarter of 2004 with total shipments of 41.2 million units and year-on-year growth of 16.5%, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Shipment growth beat expectations of 13.5% due to strength in the United States and Europe, boosted by growth in business demand. Aggressive pricing and continued portable adoption also supported rapid growth.

Dell had a strong quarter with year-on-year growth of more than 28% and sequential growth of 6.1%, boosting shipments to nearly 7.7 million units. Supported by increased business demand and a strong international performance, Dell's growth boosted the company's share of shipments from 16.9% in 4Q03 to 18.6% in 1Q04 to recapture the lead in total worldwide shipments from HP. Following a solid performance in the second half of 2003, HP grew 15.8% in 1Q04 despite seasonally lower consumer participation. Nevertheless, HP's share of shipments declined to 15.6% from 16.7% in the fourth quarter and 15.7% one year ago while Dell's market share lead expanded to 3.0% in the first quarter – twice the peak difference between the companies since the HP-Compaq merger in 2002.

"This quarter's results reveal a robust market and the improving business demand we've been looking for," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "A number of factors, including an aging installed base, rapid portable adoption, and aggressive pricing, should continue to drive growth into 2005."

"This quarter's results ratify the economic recovery," said Roger Kay, vice president of Client Computing at IDC. "We have nearly a year of double-digit growth in the PC industry, which is a concurrent indicator of economic activity. With U.S. business finally beginning to participate in the PC market in earnest, the only weak segments remain state and local public sector institutions, which are suffering from constrained budgets due to lower recession-era tax receipts.”

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Vendor Highlights

Apple – While product refreshes in Q4 boosted growth into double digits, first quarter growth slipped to 5%. U.S. growth remained in double-digits although in EMEA shipments grew by less than 4%.

Link to article

So let's recap... market grew 16.4%, Apples computer sales only 5%. Apple is not in the Top 5 of computer vendors anymore.

AND... Apple's market share is down to 1.8%!

groovebuster

 

[yamabushi]

I wonder if Apple will ever get their act together and start shipping millions of computers each year. Even if they continue to release great products and manage to market them effectively they would still have to have a supply chain capable of rapidly ramping up to that kind of volume. They had a lot of problems dealing with rapid growth twenty years ago. I hope they have a better plan for managing growth in place today. I suspect that they do not based upon recent shortages of various products. Ideally a shortage of one part should not shut down the entire operation. There are ways of managing such shortages even before they happen.

 

[srobert]

Of course, numbers are only numbers. We can make numbers tell different stories with minor tweakings. BUT! I don't like the rate at which Apple's marketshare numbers have been going down these past 5 years. It seems to me that 5 years ago we were talking 5%, around 3% last year, and now under 2%. Of course, Apple computers have a longer lifespan but not any longer than it was 5 years ago. Regardless of the precision/veracity of these numbers, I'd like to see them go up.

 

[rueyeet]

Ideally a shortage of one part should not shut down the entire operation.

Now there's one place Apple could definitely stand to learn something from Dell.

 

[dswoodley]

I wonder if Apple will ever get their act together and start shipping millions of computers each year. Even if they continue to release great products and manage to market them effectively they would still have to have a supply chain capable of rapidly ramping up to that kind of volume. They had a lot of problems dealing with rapid growth twenty years ago. I hope they have a better plan for managing growth in place today. I suspect that they do not based upon recent shortages of various products. Ideally a shortage of one part should not shut down the entire operation. There are ways of managing such shortages even before they happen.

Apple does ship millions of computers each year. On average, every quarter they ship 800,000 units - that's over 3 million year. I would love to see a stronger marketing push, however. still, until they release a dirt cheap headless iMac, Dell et al will continue to savage the market with their bargain basement prices.

 

[yamabushi]

Oops. Sorry, I should have said each quarter - not each year. How about shipping millions of units per quarter? If only Apple did a quarter as well as Dell does per quarter... That would still be two and a half times as much as they sell now. An impressive but not impossible growth target.

 

[dswoodley]

Oops. Sorry, I should have said each quarter - not each year. How about shipping millions of units per quarter? If only Apple did a quarter as well as Dell does per quarter... That would still be two and a half times as much as they sell now. An impressive but not impossible growth target.

Ok, that would be cool too! I think by using some of that $4.5 billion they have in the bank for marketing they could manage better numbers...hmmm, I wonder of that

 

[yamabushi]

I have been wondering the same thing. After the current round of hardware updates is complete a large scale ad campaign might be worth trying again. I think the timing may be right for a big marketing push. Apple should market to the middle income masses. I remember some Apple infomercials a few years ago that I thought were really good. However they were more focused on building awareness rather than immediate sales. Part of the problem is that the advertisement has to be large scale and sustained before the perception of Macs among average consumers can begin to change. That means large expenses for a while before sales can hope to boom.