Global PC shipments during that year’s first quarter rose 12.3 percent in comparison with year-earlier results, say researchers at Gartner Client Computing. By contrast, PC shipments in the U.S. grew just three percent year by year to 15.2 million units.

Preliminary results show that PC sales in the U.S. were “modestly affected” by a downturn in the nation’s economy, said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa. Though there was no one obvious indication of a “fundamental change” in market conditions, Kitagawa noted that the U.S. market is undeniably softening.

“This can potentially hasten downward price pressure and further heighten competition for the rest of 2008,” Kitagawa said. “Our U.S. shipment projection for the April quarter is 1.5 percent,” she said.

Strong Mac Sales

Though Dell’s leading U.S. market share rose to 31.4 percent in the first quarter, Apple saw its sales climb by a robust 32.4 percent year by year — the strongest rate of growth among the region’s top five PC vendors. “Apple enjoyed strong retail sales,

and there were indications that Apple showed decent growth in the professional market as well,” Kitagawa said.

The growing popularity of Apple’s Mac lineup was definitely one of the growth drivers, Kitagawa observed. Other growth drivers included continuing capability PC to Intel-based Mac replacements, growing interest among small to midsize business users, and retail expansion — both direct and indirect, she said.

By contrast, Acer’s PC shipments within the U.S. declined during the first quarter due to the Taiwan-based company’s attempt to shift its target market from low-end to mid-range systems, Kitagawa said. In addition, global PC market leader Hewlett Packard floped to grow its volume shipments in the U.S. during the first quarter.

“Our early study indicates that HP dealt with excess stock which may have originated from the fourth quarter of 2007,” Kitagawa noted. “HP faced…

Original post by Vincent Nguyen

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