Worldwide PC Sales Will Surpass 200M Units in 2005
Little Impact Expected from High-Growth Information Appliance Market

Buffalo Grove IL, February 25, 2000-
In 2005 the PC industry will pass a major milestone--worldwide PC sales will surpass 200M units. The North America region and its U.S. subset will remain the leading regions for PC sales for at least five more years. The PC server segment will have the strongest growth in all regions with worldwide sales growing from 3.7M units in 1999 to 11.5M units in 2005. Mobile PCs including notebook and handheld PCs will grow from 26.5M units in 1999 to nearly 59M in 2005.

These are some of the results from a new market research report by eTForecasts. The report projects that the emerging information appliance segment will have little impact on the PC industry in the next five years. Information appliances will take some sales away from PCs, but they will also generate new opportunities for the PC industry. Millions of PC servers will be needed to support the 100s of millions of information and web appliances that will be used in homes, offices and mobile locations. PC appliances, which are information appliances based on PCs, will provide another opportunity for the PC industry. PC appliances have recently been introduced by the highly competitive PC industry as it embraces the burgeoning information appliance market by creating easier to use application-specific PC-based products. The sales of information appliances are expected to soar, however, they will initially be used in addition to PCs replacing existing consumer electronics products with greater functionality, web-connected products.

eTForecasts publishes market research reports for the PC and Internet industries.