ZDNet: The global PC industry will suffer its ‘sharpest decline in history’ in 2009, as overall demand for PCs falls by 11.9 percent compared with 2008, according to analysts at Gartner.
The new low beats the previous record decline of just 3.2 percent, which took place in 2001. According to a statement from Gartner, both emerging and mature markets are forecast “to suffer unprecedented market slowdowns”.
The worst previously recorded performance in emerging market PC sales was growth of 11.1 percent in 2002, but in 2009 they will see contraction of 10.4 percent.
Mature market sales had a record fall of 7.9 percent in 2001, but this year they will fall by 13 percent, Gartner said.
One relatively bright spot has been the success of netbooks, which are forecast to total 21 million units in 2009 — almost double the 2008 figure of 11.7 million.
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