Strong Notebook Sales Slow PC Growth Rate
Notebook computer sales, the bright spot in a challenging PC market, will grow significantly less than expected in the current quarter, according to a new Wall Street report. And the transition to Microsoft’s forthcoming Vista operating system will stall new desktop purchases throughout the year before sparking an upgrade cycle in 2007. As a result, Lehman Brothers analyst Harry Blount trimmed his forecast of PC unit shipment growth in 2006 to 9.8% vs. his earlier expectation of 12.4% growth.
According to the Lehman report, sales of notebook PCs are running below normal seasonality in the current quarter. While Lehman Brothers previously expected notebook unit shipments to be down 4% quarter over quarter, the firm now expects shipments to decline by 10% in the current quarter. The dropoff is well below the 10-year historical range of notebook shipments, which is between a decline of 6.5% and an increase of 7.5%, according to Lehman Brothers.
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