PCs Selling at Double-Digit Rates This Year, Reports Say

The personal computer industry rode the Internet craze and Asia’s economic comeback to double-digit sales growth to start the year, according to two industry reports being released today.

While their preliminary statistics differed slightly, both Dataquest Inc. and International Data Corp. concluded that PC shipments increased by healthy margins during the first three months of the year.

The research groups estimated that PC manufacturers shipped 30 million machines in the period ended March 31. San Jose-based Dataquest said worldwide sales grew 15% from the comparable 1999 period, while Framingham, Mass.-based IDC pegged the year-to-year increase at 20%.

Of those totals, Dataquest said 11.1 million PCs were sold in the U.S., a 14.5% increase from last year. IDC recorded U.S. sales of 11.6 million PCs, a 17% boost.

Consumers eager for Internet access helped offset a corporate spending lull on PCs during the quarter, according to IDC and Dataquest. IDC analyst Bruce Stephen attributed the sluggish business market to a “Y2K [bug] hangover.”

Businesses stepped up PC purchases after January, said Charles Smulders, a Dataquest analyst.

As Asia’s economy continued its recovery from a deep recession, consumers and businesses bought PCs at a robust clip. Sales in the Asia/Pacific market rose 36% in the first quarter, IDC said.

But the future may be tougher going. “The market is getting pretty saturated,” Smulders said. “About 60% of [U.S.] households have a PC now. The industry faces the challenge of finding a way to persuade existing users to replace their PCs every two to three years instead of every four to five years.”