Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Global PC shipments for the fourth quarter of 2011 were down 0.2 percent compared to a year ago, according to data from IDC and Gartner.

The industry was hit by hard-drive shortages and competition from tablets, phones and e-readers, the research said. Only Apple — fuelled by its solid-state drive MacBook Air — skated by unscathed. Apple delivered fourth-quarter growth of 18 percent in the US.

For 2011, the PC industry grew at a rate of 1.6 percent. Europe and Asia were better than expected. IDC expects first-quarter shipments to slow, but then pick up in the fourth quarter. For 2012, IDC is expecting growth of 5.4 percent.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Hard drive shortage nails Q4 PC growth, but Apple shines on ZDNet.com.