Global sales of personal computers are expected to grow nine percent in 2005, a cooler rate than the 11,6% growth pace of 2004, a market research firm said on Tuesday.
Gartner projected worldwide PC shipments of 199-million units in 2005, from 183-million units in 2004.
”Overall shipment growth is expected to slow this year as both professional and home users wind down major replacement cycles,” said George Shiffler, a Gartner analyst.
”We believe professional replacement activity peaked in 2004 and will decelerate sharply over 2005. While home replacement activity will continue to provide some strength to the market in 2005, it too seems likely to slow by year-end.”
Gartner said however that laptop or mobile PC sales will be growing far faster than sales of desktops: 17,4% for mobiles to 6,1% for desktops.
”Mobile PCs are becoming increasingly attractive to a broad range of users,” Shiffler said.
”There are a number of reasons for this, including rapidly falling system prices.”
Gartner analysts said there may be room for more growth if the PC makes further strides toward becoming a home entertainment center, but added that this trend remains sluggish.
”Media PCs remain relatively expensive and suffer from spotty reliability as well as troublesome ease-of-use,” said analyst Kiyomi Yamada.
”PCs are also handicapped by low interoperability with other media devices and poor aesthetics. This is hurting their ability to compete against alternative devices that are both cheaper and more readily connected to media sources.” ‒ Sapa-AFP