Business creates 2010 PC growth rocket

Gartner is predicting 2010 to be a boom year for sales of business PCs, especially after last year where sales growth was almost non-existent.

Holding off PC replacements can only go on for so long, according to Gartner, and firms have been sitting on their hands for the last 18 months. This will make business the biggest growth area for PC sales in mature markets, the analyst firm said.

Australian PC shipments were expected to reach 5.3 million in 2010, up 13.5 per cent compared to 2009. This is a substantial boost, considering that last year's growth rate was only 0.3 per cent.

New Zealand will see a similar story. Gartner forecasts that the Kiwis would receive over 703,000 PCs in 2010, up 7.9 per cent on 2009, when the market had contracted by 11.3 per cent.

Gartner needed to revise its forecast upwards since March following very strong first quarter sales.

The March forecast had put the Australian shipments of PCs for the year at just 5 million units, yielding a year-on-year growth rate of 6.2 per cent. Similarly, Gartner only predicted a growth rate of 0.5 per cent for New Zealand, which it has now revised upwards.

Gartner principal analyst Lillian Tay said that the strong sales were a sign of the economy gaining steam again, prompting companies to put IT back onto the agenda before they lose out on productivity. "If the machines and PCs are aging, it takes a long time to do things," she said. "It comes to a point where you're not going to be competitive."

"At the end of last year, everyone was rushing to increase orders."