PC Sales Up 24% On Business PurchasesPC Sales Up 24% On Business Purchases

Companies have finally joined consumers in buying PCs, helping to drive sales up by more than 24% in the first quarter, a market research firm says.

Sales of desktops and laptops exceeded expectations in the quarter, as the number of shipments reached 79.1 million units, compared to 63.7 million units the same period a year ago, IDC said in releasing its quarterly PC market report Wednesday. The solid 24.2% rise was an indication that businesses rattled by last year's economic recession had returned to the market.

"The strong first quarter builds on the fourth quarter rebound and shows rising confidence in the PC supply chain and commercial client base along with persistent demand from consumers," IDC analyst Loren Loverde said in a statement. "The commercial gains are a cornerstone of market rebound that we've been expecting and are now seeing in the data."

IDC warned that the rest of the year would likely see smaller growth rates than in the first quarter. That's because the first quarter of last year, the height of the recession, saw the PC market fall nearly 7% year over year. As a result, quarterly growth rates won't be as high for the rest of the year, but strong enough to lift the whole year to a 15% increase over 2009, IDC said.

However, the analyst firm cautioned that PC growth this year and next year will require "sustained economic growth."

Among the surprises in the latest IDC market numbers was the increase in desktop sales in the first quarter. The year-over-year gain was first since the third quarter of 2008, IDC said. Driving desktop sales up were higher sales in emerging markets, an increase in purchases by businesses and higher sales of specialized designs, such as all-in-one PCs.

In looking at the top five vendors' global performance, IDC found that shipments by market leader Hewlett-Packard grew nearly 20% year over year in the quarter, particularly in emerging markets, such as Asia/Pacific, excluding Japan and Latin America.

Number two Acer continued to capitalize on the success of its low-priced PCs, with shipments rising more than 42%. Third-place Dell benefited from higher commercial sales and gains in emerging markets to help boost shipments by just over 21%.

Fourth-place Lenovo saw the biggest gain of the top vendors. Shipments soared more than 58% as a result of the Chinese company's advantage in the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan.

Finally, number five Toshiba also beat the market performance by increasing shipments by more than 29%. Toshiba's success was due to strong laptop sales in emerging market and the United States.

In the Unites States, the vendor rankings remained unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2009. HP led with a 25.4% share, followed by Dell, 24.1%; Acer, 13.1%; Toshiba, 8.6%; and Apple, 6.4%. The vendors that saw the biggest gains in shipments were Toshiba and Acer, which saw increases of 49.4% and 45.8%, respectively.