This meant that total PC shipments throughout the world came to 169 million units by Gartner's count, and 177.5 million units according to IDC.

While both reported that market growth met expectations, Gartner says there was some weakness in the desktop segment, particularly in Europe. However, a strong showing in the laptop and portable segments mitigated that effect.

“Overall fourth quarter 2004 PC sales were in line with projections, despite some weakness in the US and EMEA consumer markets,“ says Charles Smulders, VP of Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide Group. “Lower prices, better performance and wireless accessibility accelerated mobile sales.”

Also, 2004 was the best year for PC sales since the IT slump of four years ago and IDC says total shipments last year were more than 26% over 2000 volumes. IDC expects growth of roughly 10% in 2005 before shipment growth slows to single digits.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker attributes the strong growth to small and medium business segments and holiday consumer demand, especially in the last three months of the year.

EMEA challenge

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, PC shipments totalled 61.7 million units in 2004, a 14% increase from 2003. In the fourth quarter, shipments totalled 19.5 million units, an 11.7% increase from the fourth quarter of 2003.

Gartner says the EMEA PC market continues to move at two speeds: the combined growth of the top 10 PC vendors was closer to 20%, while vendors in local country markets recorded less than 5% growth.

In 2005, Gartner expects growth in EMEA to slow down, creating a challenging environment, which will become even more competitive as IBM/Lenovo reveals its EMEA strategy.

Gartner's preliminary worldwide PC vendor unit shipment estimates for 2004 (thousands of units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs and X86-32 servers. Gateway and eMachines are reported as one company, as are Fujitsu and Fujitsu Siemens.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (January 2005)

IDC says EMEA PC growth continued to benefit from a strong euro exchange rate, portable adoption and commercial investment. European Union expansion and aggressive pricing are also helping to fuel growth.

"Business demand and growth in key regions like EMEA continue to drive the market," says Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Although we saw a seasonal rise in consumer shipments, particularly in EMEA and the rest of world regions, business remains a larger market and has been growing faster since mid-2004. Ongoing PC replacements and new investment should continue to drive commercial growth at least through the end of 2005."

According to Gartner, US PC manufacturer Dell strengthened its lead in the worldwide vendor market with solid performance in all regions.“In the fourth quarter, falling component prices allowed Dell to further lower prices and gain margin and market share,” Smulders says.

IDC's 2004 vendor highlights

Dell: Dell managed another strong quarter and maintained its top rank with a solid performance across regions and total shipment growth of more than 21%. The strong results further consolidated Dell's lead, preventing HP from taking back the top rank as it did in the fourth quarter of 2002 and 2003.

HP: HP remained a strong second, benefiting from sequential growth in EMEA and the consumer segment. Nevertheless, overall growth of 9% was slightly slower than the market.

IBM: IBM shipped record volumes in the fourth quarter and grew worldwide shipments by 9% year-on-year with strong portables growth. News of the sale of IBM's PC division to Lenovo in December temporarily slowed sales in the US, although demand picked up again by the end of the month.

Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens: Fujitsu Siemens had a solid quarter, keeping pace with growth in the EMEA market, but facing a tough market in Japan.

Toshiba: Toshiba continues to benefit from the mobile adoption trend, growing roughly on par with overall portable shipments.

Gateway: Gateway saw a strong sequential increase as it worked through merger issues and took advantage of demand in small business and consumer segments. Although year-on-year growth was behind the market, the fourth quarter marks the first positive growth since the merger with eMachines, and is an important step in moving the company forward.

Acer: Acer had another strong quarter led by aggressive growth in EMEA, which represented over 70% of Acer's worldwide shipments for the quarter.

Apple: Apple had a notably strong quarter, with growth of more than 25%. This gain represents a significant improvement over prior quarters, reflecting the introduction of the G5 iMac as well as some substantiation that PC sales have benefited from the popularity of Apple's music business.