PC Sales Stay Strong

While some areas of the business software market hit a soft spot in the second quarter, worldwide PC shipments are still showing double-digit growth, market researchers IDC and Gartner say. Driven by demand for replacement PCs from business users, a total of 42.8 million PCs were shipped worldwide in the second quarter, 13.3 percent more than in the year-earlier period, Gartner says in a statement. The growth was in line with expectations, Gartner says. "Business demand is one of the key factors in 2004 to drive growth. The installed base [of PCs] is quite old. Businesses delayed replacements during the economic downturn and are now replacing those older machines," says Charles Smulders, vice president of Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide group.

IDC, meanwhile, calculates PC shipment growth at 15 percent over the same period, to 39.7 million units, beating its expectations. PC replacements, particularly of desktop systems, continued to be helped by aggressive prices, IDC says in a statement. IDC and Gartner cover the market in largely the same way, although Gartner includes certain types of system that IDC excludes.

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