Last year, PC was eroded by tablet PC

In the fourth quarter of last year, the PC market increased by 2.7% year-on-year.

On Wednesday, local market research firm IDC released the "Quarterly PC Tracker Survey". PC shipments in the fourth quarter of last year increased by 2.7% year-on-year, which is lower than the company's 5.5% expectation. The main reason is that PC growth is facing fierce competition from Apple's iPad and people are satisfied with the current PC hardware. This trend will continue this year.

The ranking among top PC manufacturers has changed partially. Dell's total PC shipments jumped to second place in the fourth quarter of last year, surpassing Acer. Acer mini notebook sales decreased. Hewlett-Packard's shipments fell by 5% in the U.S. market, and the global market fell by 1%, but ranked first in both US and global market shipments.

Lenovo's shipments of consumer and business products increased shipments by 21.1% year-on-year. IDC analyst Jay Chou praised the Lenovo business area for a more balanced development. Toshiba also saw double-digit growth, with PC shipments up 12% year-on-year.

Looking ahead to 2011, Jay Chou pointed out that mini-notebooks will see weak consumption and Asian demand will be weak, and the company's target of a 10% growth rate this year will face challenges. However, intense competition will make the market hot in the second half of the year. The weak demand in Asia refers to the 4th quarter of year-on-year growth in PC shipments in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan), which was the first single-digit increase since the first quarter of 2009.