Gartner Raises PC Market ForecastGartner Raises PC Market Forecast

Gartner has significantly raised its 2010 projected growth in worldwide PC shipments and revenue, as sales of mobile computers increase rapidly in the recovering economy.

The market researcher, which released its latest preliminary forecast Thursday, said PC shipments would increase 19.7% from 2009 to 366.1 million units. Revenue would reach $245 billion, up 12.2%.

The new forecast is significantly higher that Gartner's projections in December, when the analyst firm expected 13.3% growth in shipments and a 1.9% increase in revenue.

In the latest prediction, Gartner said it expects all regions to see growth over the next few years, as sales accelerate among consumers and spending on replacement PCs by businesses increase.

Mobile PCs will dominate the market, driving 90% of growth over the next three years, Gartner said. By 2012, mobile PCs are expected to account for nearly 70% of shipments, compared to 55% last year.

While netbooks are once again forecast to boost mobile PC growth this year, the popularity of the mini-notebooks is expected to wane as competition increases from new ultra-low voltage laptops that have larger displays and a reasonably similar price tag. Also competing with netbooks will be a new generation of tablet PCs, such as the recently announced Apple iPad that's expected to ship toward the end of the month.

Gartner believes manufacturers could ship up to 10.5 million traditional tablet PCs this year. These are devices typically used by field workers. Next-generation tablets, such as the iPad, which are focused on Web content are expected to change the market dynamics of the PC industry.

"Vendors can no longer afford to just think in terms of traditional PC form factors or architectures," Gartner analyst George Shiffler said in a statement. "With the rise of Web-delivered applications, many users no longer need a traditional PC running a resident general-purpose operating system and fast x86 CPU to satisfy their computing needs.

"Apple's iPad is just one of many new devices coming to market that will change the entire PC ecosystem and overlap it with the mobile phone industry," Shiffler said.