Canadian PC shipments showed strong year over year improvement in the fourth quarter of 2009, thanks in large part to consumers, Windows 7 and the continuing popularity of the netbook form factor.
According to IDC Canada‘s quarterly PC tracker, overall Canadian client PC unit volume was 1,694,356. That’s good enough for an 8.2 per cent improvement year over year (YoY) but down by four per cent from a strong Q3 of 2009. It should be noted though that the Q3 numbers included shipments timed for the holiday shopping season, as well as the peak of the Windows 7 launch hype.
Tim Brunt, senior analyst for personal computing with IDC Canada, said the story of Q4 was an “unprecedented” increase in PC purchasing in the consumer segment. In Q4, consumers accounted for 61.5 per cent of the units purchased. Brunt said Windows 7 was likely one factor, but so was the demand for portables. Consumer portable volume was up 42 per cent YoY, compared to just a 4.4 per cent YoY increase in commercial portables shipments. And within that consumer portables segment, netbooks are increasingly hot. Mini accounted for 27.7 per cent of consumer portables shipped, up from 13 per cent in Q4 of 2008.
“The frenzied demand for Mini notebooks has somewhat stabilized. Unit shipments in the fourth quarter only grew 3.2 per cent over the third quarter,” said Brunt. “Mini notebooks continue to gain a larger foothold in the portables market and now account for more than 24 per cent of the total portable PC shipments. Customers are also paying more attention to the Tablets, which grew 272 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2008.”
Overall, portables continued to set the pace for PC shipments in the last quarter, growing 28.1 per cent YoY on volume of 1,162,641, ahead of forecast.
Desktop PC shipments were also above expectations but still continued their steady decline with some 531,715 desktop units shipped in Q4, down 19.2 per cent YoY. Desktop shipments accounted for 31.4 per cent of the market in 2009, down from 42 per cent in 2008. The bright spot is all-in-ones, which accounted for 22 per cent of Q4 shipments.
“By and large the strength of the Canadian Client PC market is clearly beginning to return. Unit volumes while slightly lower than the third quarter (but) remained strong,” said Brunt. “Average selling prices rose a modest 7.6 per cent over the prices for the third quarter. There is certainly much more optimism in the overall marketplace than there was just three months ago.”
By vendor, HP remained in the top spot with 27.5 per cent of unit shipments, including 26.7 per cent of desktops and 27.9 per cent in portables, leading in both categories. Acer was in second place with 21.3 per cent market share, followed by Dell at 14.3 per cent overall.