IDC has predicted an upturn in UK PC sales on the back of
sustained growth in consumer netbook purchases, but the relatively
low price of these devices will drag down the market's overall
value.
In a year characterised by plummeting shipments, the analyst
expects total sales to fall by 3.3% in 2009, compared to a decline
of 4.2% predicted in May.
"The slight improvement is due to the continued growth in
portables," said Eszter Morvay, IDC research manager, adding that
mobile PCs in retail are set to rise 21%, up from the 16% it
previously stated.
Unit sales of commercial and consumer desktops are expected to
drop 22% and 15% respectively, while commercial notebooks are
touted to decline 13%.
"Businesses are still struggling to get credit and budgets have
been frozen, a lot of companies have postponed renewals of
machines," she said.
Last year, the consumer mobile segment grew 60%, so growth
levels are less than half of what they were.
Perhaps of more concern is that IDC expects mainstream notebooks
sales to be flat this year on 2008 as the netbook takes centre
stage, with growth of 113% expected.
This will significantly impact the overall value of the UK
market, which is forecast to drop 18% to £5.8bn. Split by category,
desktop and notebook revenues are forecast to fall 25% and 15%
respectively on last year.
Average sales prices are expected to drop 7% on desk-based PCs
and 19% on portables.
A version of this story originally appeared onMicroScope.co.uk
.