BEIJING: China probably overtook the US as the largest personal-computer market last quarter, after three decades of American dominance in an industry pioneered by Apple Inc and International Business Machines Corp.
Personal-computer shipments in China rose 14 per cent to 18.5 million units during the second quarter, the first time they surpassed the number in the US, where they fell 4.8 per cent to 17.7 million, Bryan Ma, an analyst at research firm IDC, said in an interview.
On a full-year basis, China will likely pass the US in 2012, he said. The estimates highlight the growing importance of China, which passed the US in 2009 in the car market, as the world's consumer. Illustrating the divergence, Hewlett-Packard Co, the PC industry's largest producer, said this month it's considering pulling out of the business and China's Lenovo Group Ltd posted quarterly profit that almost doubled.
The value of computer shipments in China in the second quarter was $11.9 billion, compared with $11.7 billion for the US, IDC's Ma said.
China had 22 per cent of the global PC market by shipments, compared with 21 per cent for the US, he said.