Notebook shipment surge, desktop drops

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 24 December 2008, 16:48 IST   |    1 Comments
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Notebook shipment surge, desktop drops
Bangalore: Despite the doomed economic outlook, notebook shipments have surpassed shipments of desktops for the first time in the third quarter, with the shipment of the former touching 36.5 million. "This marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook. The notebook PC is no longer a tool for the business market, or a computer for the well-off consumer, it's now a computer for everyman," said iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins. As per the findings of the market research and adviser company iSuppli, desktop shipments have slipped by about 1.3 percent to 38.5 million while the notebooks saw a 40 percent surge. The numbers underscore a broader shift toward portable computing as more functions like e-mail and Web surfing migrate to mobile phones and the popularity of inexpensive 'netbooks' used mainly for Internet access grows. "The trend has accelerated and will continue going forward," AmTech Research analyst Dinesh Moorjani said. He expects computer makers to ratchet down production of desktops by 20 percent in the fourth quarter while notebook production should remain flat. Moreover, ISuppli has also raised its full-year unit growth forecast to 13 percent from 12.5 percent on the better-than-expected quarterly results. A similar projection is made by IDC, which expects portable PC shipments to grow by 15.2 percent in 2009, while expecting a 6.7 percent decline for desktops and servers using PC microprocessors.