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Gartner: 1 Billion PCs In Use (and counting...)

Monday June 23, 2008 12:17 pm PDT by longofest
Gartner has announced that more than 1 billion personal computers are in use worldwide, and the number should double by 2014 driven largely by emerging market sales.

"Mature markets such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan currently account for 58 percent of the worlds installed PCs, but these markets only account for 15 percent of the worlds population," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner. "There's a startling difference in per capita PC penetration between mature and emerging markets. Of course, 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."

"We expect per capita PC penetration in emerging markets to double by 2013," added Mr. Shiffler. "Rapid penetration in emerging markets is being driven by the explosive expansion of broadband and wireless connectivity in these markets, the continuing fall in PC average selling prices (ASPs), and the general realization that PCs are an indispensable tool for advancement."


Apple has recently done very well in the United States, experiencing some of the highest growth rates in the industry.

International sales have typically consisted of 40-50% of Apple's revenue, and Apple specifically noted that they were experiencing marketshare growth in virtually all European and Asian countries during their 1Q 2008 conference call.
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longofest
48 months ago
Tried to get some more detailed info on how Apple is doing in "emerging markets." My guess is that Apple actually isn't doing as well as others are because they don't do cheap stuff. However, as long as they're able to expand in pretty saturated markets like US and Europe and NE Asia, they'll be fine for the time being.
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killerrobot
48 months ago
I have more computers NOT in use than I have computers in use. Now world numbers for that would be something really interesting to figure out. :D
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Ugg
48 months ago

Tried to get some more detailed info on how Apple is doing in "emerging markets." My guess is that Apple actually isn't doing as well as others are because they don't do cheap stuff. However, as long as they're able to expand in pretty saturated markets like US and Europe and NE Asia, they'll be fine for the time being.


For them to ignore China, India and Brazil would be suicide.

They've got to have a plan and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
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clevin
48 months ago
i tried to get a number of macs among these 1b computers, sorry no data available...... anybody has any?
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kornyboy
48 months ago
It looks like Apple is making a dent in the international market but I would like to see at least a percentage of the computers that are Macs. If anyone knows where that data can be found please share.
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Eraserhead
48 months ago

i tried to get a number of macs among these 1b computers, sorry no data available...... anybody has any?


I think its around 25 to 30 million.

For them to ignore China, India and Brazil would be suicide.


In the long term yes, but in the near term its not worth targeting them, they aren't able to afford expensive hardware and they generally can't afford software so they pirate it.

There is no money to be made there at the moment.
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mixel
48 months ago
I dont see why a company should have to cater to all markets to be succesful or profitable, where's the logic in that? Apple could continue to do fine without expanding into emerging markets, surely?
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Eraserhead
48 months ago

Tried to get some more detailed info on how Apple is doing in "emerging markets." My guess is that Apple actually isn't doing as well as others are because they don't do cheap stuff.


FWIW I looked up some figures for eastern Europe recently to compare them to Linux and Apple had around a 0.4% share there, which was generally lower than Linux's 0.5% share.
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Ugg
48 months ago

I
In the long term yes, but in the near term its not worth targeting them, they aren't able to afford expensive hardware and they generally can't afford software so they pirate it.

There is no money to be made there at the moment.


Brazil, India and China have extremely fast growing middle classes. Broadband connections in China will outpace broadband connections in the US by the end of this year.

While it's true that the vast majority of the citizens don't have much money if even only 5% of the populations of India and China can afford a Mac, that's a potential market of well over 100 million people.

IMO, and the opinion of many other businesses, ignoring China and India is suicidal.

Apple needs to have a game plan for emerging markets, especially since population growth in Japan, North America and Europe is levelling off.
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Eraserhead
48 months ago

Brazil, India and China have extremely fast growing middle classes.


The middle class in those countries still only earn a tiny fraction of the middle class in the UK, that the cost of living is around 4x lower means they can get by on much less money. They also probably don't have the same standard of living as the middle class in the UK do, and it certainly doesn't mean they can afford expensive $1000+ Macs.
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