PC industry yearly worldwide sales will grow by over 40pc in next five years

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Worldwide PC Market 2008" directory to its offering.

The PC industry celebrated its 30th year anniversary in 2005. From its humble beginning as hobby computer kits in the spring of 1975, the PC industry has come a long way. In 1975 less than 50,000 PCs were sold with a value of about $60 million.

From this limited start the PC industry has grown to unit sales of over 250 million units per year and retail revenue topping $330 billion in 2007. The next table shows the tremendous growth of the PC industry in the last 30+ years. And the growth of the PC industry will continue, but at much lower rates than previously.

The sheer size of the PC industry limits its growth rate, but the yearly worldwide sales will grow by over 40 percent in the next five years—from 231 million units in 2006 to nearly 335 million in 2012 or a 6.3 percent CAGR.

Worldwide number of PCs in-use surpassed 900M units in 2005 and will reach 1.47 billion units by year-end 2011. Worldwide cumulative PC sales topped 1 billion units in 2002 and will top 2 billion in 2007 and 3 billion in 2011. PCs in-use reached 241 million in the US in 2006 and will top 300 million in 2012.

PC revenues are growing slower than unit growth due to considerable price declines. The worldwide PC revenues were $251 billion in 2000, which increased to over $338 billion in 2007. Worldwide PC revenue will reach top $380 billion in 2013 for a CAGR of 2 percent.