GLOBAL PERSONAL computer shipments crept up only slightly in the fourth quarter, a pair of industry trackers said this week, hurt by weak consumer demand during the crucial pre-Christmas selling period and competition from Apple’s iPad tablet.

PC shipments rose 2.7 per cent to 92.1 million in the October-December period, research group IDC said. IDC had expected growth of 5.5 per cent.

Separately, researcher Gartner said fourth-quarter shipments rose 3.1 per cent. Gartner had been predicting growth of 4.8 per cent.

“If you look at Europe and the US, the market wasn’t that good. Part of that was the tablet,” IDC analyst Jay Chou said. “Netbooks are old news now and people just don’t have the dollars to spend.”

The iPad, which was launched last April, has helped spawn a new market in tablet computers. Dozens of touchscreen tablets are expected to be launched this year, further eating into demand for traditional PCs.

IDC does not count tablets in its PC estimates, but the market is expected to top 50 million units this year.

For 2010 as a whole, PC shipments rose 13.6 per cent to 346.2 million units, IDC said. The group now expects growth in 2011 to be lower than its previous forecast of 10 per cent.

Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa echoed the concerns about 2011. “For all 2010, the results indicate the PC market recovered from the recession,” she said in a news release.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) maintained the top spot in the global PC rankings in the fourth quarter, although shipments dipped and the company’s market share fell to 19.5 per cent, IDC said.

Dell took firm control of the number two spot, with shipments rising about 4 per cent.

Once the hot number three, Acer – whose sales were fuelled by low-cost netbooks that have now fallen out of favour with consumers – saw shipments fall 15 per cent.

The top five was rounded out by Lenovo and Toshiba. Both continued to grow ahead of the rest of the market.

According to Gartner the top five brands in Europe were HP, Acer, Dell, Asus and Lenovo in that order. Apple does not rank among the top five PC vendors globally, but sales of Mac computers have been growing fast.

Apple’s shipments rose 15 per cent in the US in the fourth quarter, IDC said, making it the fifth ranked brand in that market. – (Reuters)