The PC industry had a terrible fourth quarter: Worldwide shipments grew just 1.1% year-over-year, the worst Q4 growth rate since 2002, research firm Gartner said today. The U.S. was even worse: Q4 shipments dropped 10.1%.
But not every company fared so poorly.
- Apple (AAPL) shipped 1.26 million Macs in the U.S. during Q4, according to Gartner, up 8.3% year-over-year. Meanwhile, Dell (DELL) shipped 4.47 million PCs, down 16.4% year-over-year. And HP (HPQ) dropped 3.4% to 4.29 million shipped.
- Acer shipments soared 55.4% to 2.37 million shipped, thanks to super-cheap "netbook" laptops.
Without Gartner's estimate of Apple's worldwide shipments, it's hard for us to gauge how this fits into analysts' models for Apple's fiscal Q1, which it'll report next Wednesday. (We'll get them when available.)
It's somewhat encouraging that Apple is growing while the overall market is shrinking. But the corporate market, where Apple is a small player, was a significant part of the slowdown.
Meanwhile, Acer's success supports our thesis that Apple should start selling a consumer-focused tablet computer -- we're calling it the iPod touch HD -- to compete in the fast-growing netbook market.
See Also:
It's Time For An Apple Tablet: Where's My iPod Touch HD?
Apple iPod Touch HD On The Way
What Do Google Android Netbooks Mean For Microsoft And Apple?
