Computer Sales Suffered a Rare Drop Last Year : Technology: The recession and price wars sent revenue down 7.8%. It may have been the worst year-to-year performance ever.

Worldwide computer sales fell almost 8% last year, the first revenue decline in a decade and possibly the worst year-to-year performance ever by the computer hardware industry, according to a study released Monday.

While it comes as no surprise that 1991 was a bad year, the figures compiled by the market research firm Dataquest indicate that it was worse than previously believed, especially in the personal computer segment. PC shipments for 1991 totaled $41.7 billion, down a stunning 8.3% from the $45.7 billion of 1990.

Most analysts had expected the PC business to grow 3% to 4% in 1991--a weak performance in a sector where double-digit growth was considered the norm.

Dataquest analyst Nancy Stewart cited the weak economy and fierce price wars in the PC business as reasons for the dramatic industrywide revenue decline, the first since Dataquest started tracking the figures in 1983.

At the beginning of the year, Dataquest had forecast 3% growth for the computer business, but the final numbers showed that revenue fell 7.8%--to $109.7 billion from $118.9 billion in 1990.

The slump has taken its toll on vendors, with International Business Machines on Friday reporting a first-ever loss of $2.8 billion and such companies as Digital Equipment and Compaq Computer also suffering financial reverses.

Apple Computer and some vendors of PC “clones”--including Dell Computer and AST Research--escaped the worst by offering low-priced products and accepting lower profit margins in exchange for market share.

Apple’s share of the worldwide PC market leaped to 10.7% in 1991--from 8.6% in 1990--while IBM’s fell to 14.8% from 15.2%. And in an indication that the 10-year-old PC business has begun to mature, the percentage of all computer sales that were PCs fell to 41.7% in 1991 from 41.9% in 1990.

Workstations, powerful desktop machines that were once used only by scientists and engineers but are gaining popularity in the commercial world, were the only category of computer hardware to register significant growth in 1991. Workstation revenue rose 14.4% to $8.8 billion. Even that performance lagged far behind the 25% to 30% growth that some analysts had anticipated.

Workstations were one of the few bright spots for IBM, which came from nowhere to garner 16% share of the market with a new line of machines.