Day of reckoning: Q1 2009 PC market share figures arrive

Well, Gartner and IDC have weighed in on what everyone agrees was a down quarter for the PC industry (Q1 2009). The figures break down like this: Worldwide PC sales (averaged between Gartner and IDC): 65.34 million US PC sales: 15.13 million According to Gartner, worldwide PC sales fell year-over-year by 6.5 percent in the quarter; IDC says the decline was 7.1 percent. US PC sales fell just .3 percent, Gartner says; IDC reports a 3 percent decline in the US. The top 5 PC vendors, worldwide, are: 1. HP 2. Dell 3. Acer 4. Lenovo 5. Toshiba In the US, the top five PC vendors are: 1. HP 2. Dell 3. Acer 4. Apple 5. Toshiba The big trends in the quarter: - PC sales weren't as bad as expected. That is, sales fell, but not as much as anticipated. - Dell is tanking. They fell from the number one spot in the US for the first time in years but saw massive market share declines (in the 16-17 percent range worldwide and in the US) BTW, I will use the figures quote above to measure Mac market share for Q1 2009 when Apple releases their quarterly results. Preliminary numbers are inconclusive: Both Gartner and IDC show that Mac sales were down slightly year over year in the US. Neither company provides data for Apple's worldwide sales because Apple is not in the top five globally. But we can nail that number down soon. My guess is that Apple will lose a very small amount of market share globally and be flat in the US. Given the exorbitant prices they charge, that's not too shabby.