Gartner: PC install base more than 1 billion, to reach 2 billion by 2014

Gartner Inc., considered the PC industry’s leading technological research and advisory company has just corrected EA DICE’s Ben Cousins’ approximations of the PC hardware install base – it’s not just hundreds of millions. According to Gartner, there’s already more than 1 billion PCs used all over the world, and if the hardware adoption rate continues, it will reach 2 billion by 2014. That’s close to a third of the world’s total population. Facts and more at the full story.

 

According to the latest report to come out of Gartner Inc., the PC hardware base is still strong. The information technology research company has announced that the hardware install base of all PC machines combined have peaked over 1 billion units worldwide, and this figure is just considering the units already in use – as opposed to those just being shipped to retail.

The company also took into consideration the constant replacement of whole units and hardware, some of which find a new owner as a second-hand machine while others end up in a landfill. “We forecast just over 180 million PCs – approximately 16 percent of the existing installed base – will be replaced this year,” mused principal research analyst Meike Escherich.

And yet the growth of the hardware adoption rate remains steady. Gartner reports that the hardware install base is growing some digits below 12% per annum (per year), and if the trend maintains itself, the world will have approximately 2 billion PCs by 2014.

Analysts have reason to believe that the mature markets of the US, Europe and Japan currently embody 58% of the current approximated install base figure, though that will change in the near future. Data has pointed out that emerging markets are steadily growing stronger, thanks to continued marketing of PCs as tools for advancement, cheap broadband and wireless access, and the slow drop of the average selling price (ASP) of PCs.

Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner, also noted:

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. Whereas mature markets accounted for just under 60 percent of the first billion installed PCs, we expect emerging markets to account for approximately 70 percent of the next billion installed PCs.

The preliminary announcement from Gartner is to be succeeded by a follow-up press event on June 25, 2008, when the Gartner Hardware Briefing launches. Analysts are expected to divulge the actual state of the PC industry when the sun rises on Wednesday morning. Get updates on that as we look for them.