Total shipments rose 10.9% year on year in the first quarter to 46.1 million, roughly 1% above forecast. Continued growth in EMEA and in portable PCs were the primary drivers.
“First quarter results demonstrate that demand remains healthy going into the new year,” said Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. “Although the market is expected to slow later this year, demand for portables, system replacements, and growth in emerging geographies continue to drive expansion.”
“Outside the United States, a weakening dollar helped create market momentum, as strong international currencies, particularly the Euro, made dollar-denominated purchases attractive,” said Roger Kay, vice president of Client Computing at IDC. “Despite U.S. shipment results beating forecast slightly, the second half remains clouded, as macroeconomic indicators continue to be mostly negative.”
— United States – Following a strong fourth quarter, the U.S. market was in line with forecasts, showing strong growth in portable PC shipments and small and medium business sectors.
— EMEA – Demand for portable PCs continued to fuel growth in EMEA boosting total shipments by over 15% year on year. Consumer demand appeared relatively strong while commercial growth was in line with expectations.
— Dell – Dell remained the top vendor worldwide, expanding its lead with worldwide growth of over 13% year on year. International shipments increased by more than 21%, and portable PCs made continued gains.
— HP – HP had a solid quarter, gaining share internationally with year-on-year growth of more than 15%. HP’s worldwide growth was in line with the market.
— IBM – IBM had a relatively slow quarter with growth of 2% trailing double-digit growth in prior quarters. Strong notebook growth pushed portable PCs to nearly 48% of IBM’s client PC shipment mix, an increase of several points.
— Gateway – Following a fourth quarter gain, combined Gateway and eMachines shipments declined more than 20% year on year in the first quarter. The slowdown reflects continued challenges for Gateway following the acquisition of eMachines, despite significantly expanding its channel network.
— Toshiba – Toshiba had another solid quarter, benefiting from growing portable adoption, but managing remarkably strong sales in the United States.
— Apple – Apple had another very strong quarter with growth of more than 43%. Aside from the company’s clear ability to leverage the success of its music and iPod business to gain traction in the PC market, the iMac mini was a key factor in Apple’s 1Q05 unit growth.
— Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the vendor/brand under which they are sold.
— PCs includes Desktop, Notebook, Ultra Portable, and x86 Servers.
— PCs do not include handhelds. Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.
— IBM Client PC shipments will be tracked under the Lenovo name once the sale of IBM’s PC division is legally completed.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.