BUSINESS
PC population tops 1 billion
24-06-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
There are currently over 1 billion PCs in use globally, with the installed base growing at a rate of 12 percent per year.
That's according to analyst house Gartner, which predicts the number of installed PCs around the world will grow to over 2 billion by 2014. Gartner defines the installed base of PCs as the estimated number of PCs in use, as opposed to the number shipped over a specific period.
Over half (58 percent) of installed PCs are based in the mature markets of the US, Western Europe and Japan. These markets only account for 15 percent of the world's population, according to Gartner, which says these statistics highlight the huge gap in per capita PC penetration between mature and emerging markets.
"Much of this difference reflects the disparity in average living standards between mature and emerging markets. But rapid economic development across emerging markets is not only narrowing the disparity in average living standards, it's closing the difference in per capita PC penetration between mature and emerging markets," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.
Shiffler expects per capita PC penetration in emerging markets to double by 2013 as broadband and wireless connectivity in these markets takes off and the average selling prices of PCs drops.
"Emerging market governments are also increasingly committed to reducing the digital divide by promoting PC use among their citizens through a variety of means, including providing PCs directly to the less affluent," said Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner.
Anavitarte went on to explain that while mature markets accounted for just under 60 percent of the first billion installed PCs, emerging markets are expected to account for approximately 70 percent of the next billion.
Elsewhere in the report, Gartner predicts that just over 180 million PCs -- around 16 percent of the existing installed base -- will be replaced this year. The firm estimates that 20 percent of these, or some 35 million PCs, will be dumped into landfill.
"The disposition of retired PCs has become a high-profile issue for many PC vendors, governments and environmental interest groups. It will become an even more pressing issue, especially in emerging markets, as the number of retired PCs grows with the continuing expansion of the PC installed base," said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.
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