Framingham (MA) – Notebook sales have been growing at double-digit rates for some time now, keeping a PC market healthy despite negative growth rates for desktop PCs. The question was not if notebooks would be outselling desktops at some point, but rather when. And according to IDC, it happened for the first time in the third quarter of this year.

The market research firm said that quarterly desktop PC shipments fell below notebooks for the first time in the history of the U.S. market. IDC said that notebook shipments accounted for 55.1% of the entire PC market in Q3.

The company said that a record volume of more than 9.5 million notebooks shipped in the third quarter, representing an 18% growth year-over-year. IDC said that the growth was fueled by a “relatively active back-to-school season” which showed no impact by “the burgeoning financial crisis, which captured headlines but did not immediately affect the PC market's performance.”

The market research firm estimates that “almost all the leading vendors with desktop and notebook offerings shipped greater notebook volumes in the quarter and some, including Sony, Acer, and Lenovo, exceeded a 65% notebook ratio.

"The consumer market continued to be the top driving factor in the notebook offensive but the commercial sector played a critical role too" says David Daoud, research manager, U.S. Quarterly PC Tracker and Personal Systems at IDC. "The consumer market has long favored notebooks, with mobile ratios exceeding the 70% mark. So it is clear that the small and mid-markets, as well as the enterprise and public sector buyers, are seeing good value in mobility.”

He noted that while mobility will remain a leading growth factor, “the economy will be a major wild card in the short to mid term.”

“Prolonged economic tension could have an adverse effect on the PC space leading to reduced growth, but the good news is that virtually every buyer considers PCs as must-have products and not a secondary wish-list items," he said.

do they account for overlap?

Oct 29, 2008 12:57     

some of us have both. one PC for high performance(gaming) and one laptop for mobile work.
Jonas report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Sony and Acer? what about Dell and HP?

Oct 29, 2008 13:17     

I heard that Dell and HP still #1 on sales on the US, were are they in the top sales of laptops? who are the top 5? looks like this info is very uncompleted.
sergey report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

HP and Dell are not the top sellers in laptops..

Oct 29, 2008 13:28     

I know that amazon's list does not represent the US market, but just as reference here is what they have in the top 20 Notebooks: 7 Macs 4 Acers 5 Asus 2 HPs 1 toshiba 1 MSI The number one is an ACER and number two is a Mac.
Bill report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

PC sales be down, but...

Oct 29, 2008 14:05     

What about people that don't buy a new PC but upgrade. Gamers like myself probably have not bought a Desktop since, we learned we could build a better machine ourselves. I've replaced my mother boards twice last year for my two systems, replaced my CPU three times, bought two AMD Black Edition, and just replaced one of them with a Quad. Now, can those be tracked? Probably not. What these market researchers also need to do is to track, the purchase of independent CPUs, or CPU/MB combos. I'm sure the Desktop is still the leading user machine. Once people understand how a computer system works, it's likely they'll bug people like me for tech advice on CPU/MB/Vid cards. Speaking from experience, I've taught at least 20 adult gamers how to upgrade, build, replace systems and parts. Since then, most of them have built their own rig, learned how to piece things together, and learned how to install an OS and virus/spyware software. I've done them a great service, and saved them lots of money, and they've passed on my learning to others as well. People are getting smarter, more adults are getting more comfortable with constructing their own rigs. Which will also attribute to the decline of prebuilt systems. Plus the kids are more comfortable with stripping out systems. This is the new age of home repairs, not only is it toilets and tubs, it's also systems and HTPC.

Devon M report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

We need more Notebooks motherboards

Oct 29, 2008 16:48     

They are really hard to buy here.
mm report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Upgradable GPU Drivers Please.

Oct 29, 2008 17:50     

The notebook drivers need to be as easily upgraded as desktop drivers.
Fred report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

"The number one is an ACER and number two is a Mac."

Oct 29, 2008 22:22     

The number one manufacturer of laptops in North American is HP followed by Dell then Sony then Toshiba then Acer. Macbooks are not even grouped with laptops.
cabose369 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

More appealling

Oct 30, 2008 08:05     

I think notebooks are out selling desktops since they are more appealling due to being easy to setup and easy to take any where one wants to computer (type, surf the internet, etc). The smaller notebook computers do not take up much space and are great for wifi cafe's. :)
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

notebooks are for newbs

Oct 30, 2008 11:23     

what a newb article...gamers are all pro's...we all build our own PC's now. My PC is probably 4-5x faster than any notebook. Put this in your next article chump.
jimmy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2

PC is more accessible to the consumer here is why.

Oct 30, 2008 11:30     

When its time to upgrade your laptop...what do you do? what are your options? You could drop a new hard drive in there, or maybe one extra slot for ram if your lucky. Blu ray drive? haha on that small 15" so called wide screen? Yea right. My point is that PC's are actually more accessible to tne consumer. If you need more ram, you get 4 ram slots. Want a new CPU? upgrade the bios...buy a new CPU. Want a nice CPU cooler to overclock and keep up with technology? This is THE most beneficial part of buying a PC instead. Save money and overclock instead of buying the top of the line Processor with the same speed at no additional cost.

jimmy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

PC is cheaper

Oct 30, 2008 11:38     

The prices on 4 gigs of ram DDR2 800 have gone down to about $64.00! The parts you get when buying a retail PC from DELL or HP is horrendous! Plus you can buy windows vista OEM from frys or newegg for 100 bucks.
jimmy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@cabose369.. Lear the lenguage before posting....

Oct 30, 2008 12:57     

cabose369, that is AMAZON's List, not top US seller, you need to learn the language before posting or at least use a computer with internet connection to check the data, go to "http://www.amazon.com and check the TOP NoteBook, even if you can read, Amazon still counting Macs as Notebooks....
Bill report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Sorry I eate the "N",

Oct 30, 2008 13:00     

Sorry I missed the "N" in the title, I guess the fish did die by it own mouth... lol
Bill report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re:jimmy

Oct 31, 2008 04:28     

Its not an article about enthusiast users like both you and myself, its about mainstream market trends. You have enough brain cells to locate a PCI slot, kudos. You probably also used too much thermal compound on your CPU like about fifty percent of your ilk. And your here talking shit to a guy with a journalism degree because why? You can operate a screwdriver and comprehend motherboard instructions written for a moron? The next time it occurs to you to post to an article about mainstream market trends, please remember we all think you are a jackass. Believe it or not, there is a world beyond crysis, blunts, and mom's basement. The article was just fine. I remember when consumer laptop sales considered alone passed this point in 2005. Its nice to see commercial sales trending in this direction. Its also nice to see sales growth of any sort in this alt-a paper, illegal alien mortgage loaning topsy-turvy economy of late. I really saw the S&L meltdown hitting the biz harder than it appears to be.

Scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0